Birmingham Goods Station in for planning

Image: courtesy of LDA Design

A detailed planning application has been submitted by Vita Group for Goods Station, Birmingham, which is on a brownfield site close to New Street Station. The public realm designed by LDA Design and if 'green lit', will become a key gateway to the lively Westside district.

A landscape-led masterplan for Goods Station will deliver 990 new homes, including 750 new student bedrooms, 220 serviced apartments and a large public food hall, anchored around a generous and verdant central garden.

Naturalistic public realm is being proposed for a new development in the heart of Birmingham, in contrast to the hard and corporate spaces that are more common across the city.

The public realm, LDA Design says, will strengthen connectivity in the city, providing a new direct route for pedestrians between two existing key streets, Navigation Street and Holliday Street.

The development has been designed to respond creatively to the site’s distinctive topography and pedestrian desire lines. A series of terraces make a feature of a 4.5 metre level change, creating places to socialise and for play, and with views to an animated courtyard below. Integrated slides provide playful access between the terraces.

Images below: sketch of green, lively and welcoming Good's Yard Birmingham and how the industrial heritage has informed the design

LDA Design states:

'The public realm for Goods Station will feel soft and green with leafy garden streets, rain gardens and richly planted terraces. Half the public realm will be given over to soft landscape, with planting for seasonal change and to maximise biodiversity.

'The landscape designs also draw on the site’s industrial heritage with deconstructed rail infrastructure reimagined as integrated play features such as railway sleeper balancing walks, gantry swing seats, and freight boxes used for climbing and seating.

'The public realm is also designed to be activated and animated throughout the day and evening, with a fluid relationship between internal and external spaces. The new food court, with spill out space, will celebrate the city’s emerging food scene and there will be space for community events in the new square.'