A forward looking journal about past-futures, modernism, architecture, and town-planning in Birmingham.
Risograph printed, 18x24cm, Swiss binding with dayglo cover.
Limited edition of 200 copies.
INTRODUCTION by James Dunn
Back to the Future explores the future of the built environment, and how we may rekindle the collective imagination that ignited the modernist movement, to envision how Birmingham might take shape over the next century, longer. This publication comes at an historic moment in the gestation of the spatial vision for the Central Birmingham area for the next two decades. On 26th March, the first round of consultation concluded on Birmingham City Council’s Our Future City Plan: Central Birmingham 2040. This document will replace the current Big City Plan, setting the direction for local planning policy in the city centre.
As we look to the future of this City, it is a good time to take a beat, and consider how radical architecture and planning can help to solve some of today’s problems. The present document demonstrates that many people who have settled in Birmingham take pride and inspiration from its post-war architectural heritage. For example, Simon Jones recounts his experiences as a town planner working in Alpha Tower in the early noughties, when Gareth Gates was on Pop Idol, and truly anything seemed possible in a city that always turns towards the future.
