Written by Nicky Getgood on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 ( One response )
Tags: made
Join MADE on 3rd March for The Art and Architecture of Place, a series of special events from mid-afternoon onwards, featuring Sean Griffiths from FAT Architects and celebrating MADE’s 5th birthday, plus 175 years of the RIBA. The afternoon starts at 3.45pm with an evening reception from 6.00pm
Written by Nicky Getgood on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 ( One response )
Tags: Capsule, custardfactory, Digbethisgood, links, made, peteashton, releasethebats, rescuegeography, toblog
- A diarising jazz musician discovers Digbeth – ‘Digbeth is very interesting. it has vintage shops, and theres this place called Custard Factory which holds an art gallery, some shops, a small broadcast radio… mini minor shops. Basically, quirky interesting things. And here I found the elusive violin shop that I’ve wanted to visit ever since I got here…Also, there is a pub by the corner of a road that is exactly like the many we saw at Stratford – all Tudor. Genuine Tudor too by the looks of it. Where they had a wider upper floor compared to the lower one.’ I wonder which pub he means?
- The exhibition and after « Rescue Geography – Phil Jones stops to take stock and look ahead at the end of the Rescue Geography exhibition.
- Release The Bats – I was too hungover from the Ikon Eastside closing party to go, but Pete Ashton made it and took some great photos. ‘The gig itself was excellent. I wasn’t too bothered with Wooden Shjips in the context but Pissed Jeans were great, Om were surprisingly suitable…and Shellac were as fantastic as I had hoped. Really tight, really entertaining, really quite scary. Thank you Jenny and Lisa Capsule for bringing them to Birmingham!’
Written by Nicky Getgood on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: bennie gray, big city plan, Custard Factory, digbeth business association, horton project, jonathan bore, made, organiceastide, rescue geography, richard tregrouse, south birmingham college
So Bennie Gray’s been in the paper saying Birmingham needs a few more Custard Factories. George Ferguson, who spoke at the Organic Eastside seminar held by MADE* and Digbeth Business Association in South Birmingham College last night, would heartilly agree. He feels that creative hubs are part of a pattern that make up ‘complex cities’.
George’s philosophy of looking beyond architecture in regeneration, planing change and bringing the best out of places rather than rebuilding, went down a storm.
He had a very interesting take on the credit crunch, that it may actually be a blessing in disguise. It’ll stop the building of blinkered, one-use projects in their tracks for a start. It could instead leave room for ‘slow architecture’ of more flexible, mixed-use buildings, which develop organically over time, adapting to economic and environmental change as they grow.
George later said that we need to ‘identify the maniacs’ who’ll make exciting places by sympathetically utilising their environments rather than flattening and rebuilding them. Bennie Gray is one such maniac, and Birmingham is blessed to have him.
Jonathan Bore’s less popular presentation of the Big City Plan wasn’t exactly new information – expand the concrete collar in building a bigger and better city centre. Some felt he had too many questions (for which he’s had the time to find answers) rather than solutions and others felt the means being used to achieve the goal were questionable, with talk of areas such as Highgate undergoing ‘social cleansing’.
Other highlights were the Rescue Geography presentation, Richard Trengrouse’s Digbeth wisdom and the presence of the men behind the planned Horton Project opposite Selfridges – a ‘city within a city’ that will transform Digbeth Cold Storage and surrounding buildings. Let’s hope they move those bus stops, which are as restrictive as that concrete collar, whilst they’re at it.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: bennie gray, Custard Factory, dan burwood, made, rescue geography, The Bond, tony collier
This caught my eye at the launch of the Rescue Geography photography exhibition in MADE* on Friday evening. The exhibition is open daily 12 noon to 2pm until 31st October.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: dan burwood, made, rescue geography
Exhibition of Digbeth life on 27-31 October at MADE*, Fazeley Street with a preview this Friday 24 October 5-7pm.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Friday, October 17th, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: dan burwood, dlog, made, mustafa yalluri, rescue geography
Many thanks to D’log for flagging up this BBC Online article about the brilliant Rescue Geography: Digbeth project, which gathers peoples’ stories of the area, pre and post the onset of regeneration activity. The website’s a mine of memories old and new. It has maps, maps, maps galore that contain photos, noises and interviews with locals describing their own routes and landmarks of the area, including those of Mustafa Yalluri, who’s aged a little since this photo was taken of him. He still lives in the chip shop opposite Peugeot on the High Street. He very much hopes to be able to re-open it soon, and let’s hope if he does the scary, old-lady ghost who haunts it doesn’t gobble up all the chips.
The Rescue Geography photography exhibition with images by photographer Dan Burwood launches at MADE, Fazeley Street on 27th October.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Monday, September 15th, 2008 ( 2 responses )
Tags: artsfest, claireburgess, Digbethisgood, dlog, gigbeth, killriculum, links, made, millenniumpoint, sugarhillgang, thebond, toblog
- MADE in Birmingham – D’log summarizes MADE’s forthcoming autumn events. “Organic Eastside: Creative approaches to regenerating Eastside” on 28th October 2008 is one I’ll definately be signing up for.
- Killriculum – Now I love a good, nasty horror film that messes with my head for a few days after I’ve seen it. I actually really like Wolf Creek, and all those Japanese films with scary little girl ghosts. So it’s great to see a Bond-based company making it with young people, I’m only disappointed I’m too old to participate. They held free live workshops at The Bond over the weekend and are currently looking for a team of young writers to help write a spooky script. There’s the opportunity to submit your own creations, which if shortlisted will be screened at Killriculum’s showcase event in Millennium Point on 26 October, followed by ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ and a Q&A session with film director John Hough.
- Gigbeth at Artsfest – Now I don’t know Claire Burgess, but something tells me she doesn’t look like the sort of person who raps old Sugarhill Gang hits effortlessly, which is why her doing exactly that and getting customers to do the same at their Artfest stall puts a great picture in my head.
- Betty’s Utility Room: The Digbeth Coach Station of Blogging – A rather bizarre blog, not at all about Digbeth coach station, but about 10cc top tens that make Sarah Palin explode and Sir Bill Cotton. Betty says that ‘bloggers are a bunch of c***ts’, which really makes me warm to her.
