Manica: New Blues stadium will ‘bring whole city together’

The architects of Birmingham City’s £2bn Sports Quarter say the eye-catching stadium project will unite the city when completed.

Initial designs for the stadium were unveiled last month, with a striking design featuring 12 chimney-style towers intended as a nod back to the city’s industrial heritage, and the Bordesley Green site’s history as a one-time brickworks.

The chimneys have proved something of a “Marmite” moment for the public after the initial visuals for the stadium were published at an event in November, but David Manica, owner of the eponymous Kansas-based architecture firm who helped design the stadium, said the project’s signature feature would prove a rallying point for all Brummies – although supporters of city rivals Aston Villa may not be wholly convinced.

“The chimneys do more than one thing – they help hold the roof up, they help naturally ventilate the building, they provide vertical circulation – so elevators and stairs up and down the building – then some of the bigger ones can even become sort of experiences, like a bar or a view out, an entrance to a restaurant, it can be more than one thing. They do incredible things for the project and also give it its signature element,” he said.

Designs for a proposed new stadium for Birmingham City FC were released last month. Credit: BCFC/MANICA/Heatherwick

“For Heatherwick Studios, whose idea the chimneys really was, we worked together to make sure this is a place that was really unique to this city, but also unlike anything ever seen before… it was that balance of creating something surprising but also something familiar that was a real challenge and something we got a bit into.

“These buildings have to do more than one thing these days to be successful, and to become important buildings for a city. It will be an incredible concert venue, it’ll have incredible family shows, it’ll really bring the whole city together.”

Speaking to Birmingham City’s in-house media channel, he said the material choices used to build the stadium would create a “loud and intimidating” match-day experience, while also delivering acoustics in-line with a world class concert venue.

A planning application for the new stadium is expected to be submitted to the city council in the new year.

“We’re thinking very carefully about the materials in the roof to bounce that sounds off the roof and back down there’s that incredibly intimidating atmosphere. We’re keeping that roof really close to the stands and the crowd because that’s what increases the volume,” he added.

“But at the same time it has to be a really great concert venue so we’re really threading the needle there to make it an incredible matchday experience – super loud, really intimidating, but at the same time an incredible concert venue.

“This building will be on the tour for all the greatest shows that come to the UK the roof is a really important part of that success. There’s a large area of the roof that’s fixed, but the opening above the pitch retracts open and closed, so it’ll be open for football matches or during concerts they can close it, and that gives the building a lot more flexibility to host a wide variety of events for the city.”