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UTHOR: Hartman, HattieTITLE: Birmingham's low-carbon vision

SOURCE: Architects' Journal 232 no14 40-3 O 14 2010COPYRIGH

T:The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced witthe publisher: http://www.ajplus.co.uk/

Hartman, HattieHattie Hartman Birmingham may be England's second city but ithas big ambitions. In this AJ Birmingham special issue, featuring the best of the LowCarbon Hub at the new BEST show at the NEC, we survey the city's urban design andcarbon reduction plans, present Associated Architects' Birmingham City Council (BCC)office buildings as a low-carbon exemplar and update you on the remains of the city'sBuilding Schools for the Future programme. Last month, BCC launched the Big CityPlan, a thoughtful urban design framework that aspires to knit the city together andidentifies priority development areas. But the new vision does not stop with architectureand urban design. The city has also adopted CO, emissions reduction targets thatexceed national ones and wants to brand itself as a low-carbon innovator to attractinvestment. With few exceptions, Birmingham is dominated by the car, and the A38cuts through the heart of the city centre. The city wants to build on the successes of the

regenerated canal district around Brindleyplace and begin to reclaim the city centre forpedestrians. The city joined the iconic architecture league with Future Systems'Selfridges in 2003. More iconic architecture is on its way: a new library by Mecanoo willbe completed in 2012, and Foreign Office Architects is redeveloping New StreetStation. The Big City Plan also proposes interventions to tackle the behemoth of the

A38 and create ways through at key locations. Selfridges may be buzzing, but physicallinks to the surrounding city are still woefully inadequate. Glenn Howells Architects ismasterplanning Eastside for the potential arrival of the proposed high speed rail, andPatel Taylor's Eastside Park will give this part of the city a green lung. The energy andenthusiasm in Birmingham for the promise of the Big City Plan is palpable. On one of myvisits, Howells told me: 'I could live in London, but there's too much to do inBirmingham.'LOW-CARBON VISION The grandeur of Birmingham's Victorian civic buildings saysit all. At the height of empire, the city's manufactured goods were renowned. NowEngland's second city seeks to brand itself as a low-carbon innovator. Exceeding theUK's ambitious Climate Change Act, Birmingham has adopted a CO[sub2] reductiontarget of 60 per cent by 2026 based on 1990 figures. And the city aims to slash itsannual 1.5 billion energy bill by half in the next 10 years. 'Cities need to plan theirenergy, just like transport and other infrastructure. To date, this has been left to utilitiesand the marketplace,' says Sandy Taylor, Birmingham's Head of Sustainability andClimate Change. Taylor's view is that cities must take the lead in planning their energyfutures, not just rely on national targets. Birmingham is uniquely situated to do this. Asingle local authority governs Birmingham's population of just over one million people, in

marked contrast with London's 22 boroughs. As the country's largest local authority,Birmingham is in a rare position to exercise joined-up thinking, the frequently mumbledaspiration of public policy makers and urban designers. For strategic energy planning,this is a must. But the low-carbon city is not just about saving the planet. BirminghamCity Council faces across-the-board budget cuts of more than 30 per cent this year. Thecity's low-carbon initiative plans to reduce Birmingham's carbon footprint, but it's lookingto make money, too. A 2008 strategic framework 'Cutting CO[sub2] for a SmarterBirmingham' was followed by the Birmingham Declaration adopted by the City Council in

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December 2009 (see opposite page), and a Climate Change Action Plan in March of thisyear which begins to translate targets into deliverable projects. The city's energystrategy is focused around four initiatives: district heating, generation of energy fromwaste, residential retrofit and electric cars. A critical issue is how to fund upfront capitalcosts for sustainable infrastructure. Birmingham has pioneered the use of taxincrement financing (TIF) in the UK, a municipal finance tool recently championed bythe Coalition government and widely used in North America (for example at Chicago'sMillennium Park). What differentiates Birmingham's district heating initiative is that thecity, by investing up front, has given developers the confidence to join in. Thiseliminates the waiting game for a critical mass of development before a system becomeseconomically viable. Another key to Birmingham's success has been the city's ability towork with the private sector. Chris Murray, director of the Core Cities group, explainsthat the fact the city has been able to 'share risk with private sector partners hasunlocked millions for development. In an era of massive budget cuts, investment toolsthat mitigate against those cuts become important,' says Murray. But politicalleadership is also required to drive the low-carbon agenda forward. Established in 2007,the Broad Street City Centre energy network links together major buildings including the

City Hall, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the International Convention Centre and anearby hotel through gas-fired CHP. A second system around Aston University beganoperation earlier this year, and two more at Birmingham Children's Hospital and NewStreet Station are in the pipeline. The fact that student accommodation at LancasterCircus currently on site is being built without boilers, flues and chimneys is a sign ofconfidence in the district heating scheme, says the city council's Leo McMulkin. Otherprojects in the pipeline include converting an existing waste-to-energy plant locatedclose to the city centre to CHP in the next year so that its heat can be recovered. Thisplant, built in 1996, currently provides electricity to more than 30,000 homes usinghousehold and business waste. The city intends to expand the waste-to-energy schemeto include restaurants, hotels and the wholesale food market. Also in the pipeline is aproject to capture the city's biomass potential by collecting the 'arisings' from municipaltree management which could yield up to 8,000 tonnes of wood pelletsannually. Promoting the use of electric cars is another strategy of the BirminghamDeclaration, and the city has committed that its municipal fleet should be all electric by2015. A dozen charging points have been identified in the city centre. As part of theCABLED project funded through the Technology Strategy Board, a trial fleet of 110 carssupported by E.ON was launched in June. The cars and charging points are beingmonitored by Arup to inform the future development of an electric charginginfrastructure. The city's 440,000 homes produce around a third of its CO[sub2]emissions. In the next two years, Birmingham plans to lever 100 million in loans andsubsidies to 10,000 homeowners for housing retrofit, says Dave Allport of BirminghamCity Council. A pilot programme focused on vulnerable homes in Northfield started in

August and 60 homes were completed by the end of last month. The scheme will buildon the success of the six-year-old Birmingham Construction Partnership by usingframework contracts, and skills training is integral to the programme. The feed-in tariffhas made solar PV a viable retrofit option within the Birmingham Energy Savers schemein more affluent areas. Raising awareness and mobilising people to buy into therebranding of Birmingham as a low-carbon city is just as important as all the investmentin green infrastructure and technologies. The BCC's 2008 Climate Change Festival,organised jointly with CABE, marked a start. The city is banking on attracting investment

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through its low-carbon credentials. It all makes a lot of sense, except when you see thereality of car-dominated Birmingham and its ring road today. Glenn Howells is rightwhen he says: 'There is a lot of work to do.'ADDED MATERIAL Birmingham LowCarbon City is the theme for the Low Carbon Hub at BEST (Built Environment Solutionsand Technologies), which takes place at the Birmingham NEC on 18-20 October,www.best-show.co.uk Integrated with Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Mecanoo'sBirmingham Library is targeting a BREEAM Excellent rating and will complete in2012Foreign Office Architects' New Street Station (2012-2015) will be open 24/7 andprovide a new heart to the city centreFuture Systems' Selfridges has becomesynonymous with Birmingham, but pedestrian links are still poorBirmingham's CO[sub2]reduction target of 60 per cent by 2026 (based on 1990 figures) surpasses the nationaltarget of 34 per cent by 2022 and 80 per cent by 2050. Projections show that housingretrofit has the single largest impactBirmingham District Energy SchemesBIRMINGHAM DECLARATION This Council believes that by 2015: * All vehiclesprocured by the Council should be electrically powered or run on liquefied petroleumgas. * There will be at least 500 electric cars running on the streets of the city as wewill develop the electric charging infrastructure * 50 per cent of electricity used by the

Council should be generated from renewable sources. * The City Council's energyconsumption will be reduced by 25 per cent * 10 per cent of Birmingham homes willbe linked to district heating systems * 10 per cent of Birmingham homes will haveretrofit insulation * There will be at least 10 'low-carbon communities' similar to thesuccessful example of Summerfield Eco-neighbourhood (Adopted by Birmingham CityCouncil, December 2009)

Source:Architects' Journal, October 14 2010, Vol. 232 Issue 14, p40, 4pItem:505360939

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