Significant Features with Bournville Village Trust

PROJECT: Significant Features Exhibition
LOCATION: International Project Space, Bournville, Birmingham
COLLABORATORS: An Endless Supply, Grain, Bournville Village Trust, Grand Union
PROJECT TYPE: Exhibition Installation, Research and Publication

Modern Gazetteer is an interdisciplinary research project that was set up in 2011, housed across the schools of Architecture and Art with aim of supporting and developing practitioners at all stages of their development. In the spirit of the Gazetteer, projects are responsive to site, and place an emphasis on researching and revealing information in the broadest sense, through the engagement of regional community partners, at sites of national and international importance.

Led by Mike Dring of the Birmingham School of Architecture and Stuart Whipps of the Birmingham School of Art, over forty BA Art & Design, MArch in Architecture, and Art Based Masters students explored Bournville Village Archive and the village itself as parallel sites of interrogation. Famous for its chocolate-making heritage, Bournville is a site of regional and national importance because of its inception as an industrial ‘model village’. The project culminated in the show and accompanying book entitled ‘Significant Features’, the work employing a variety of creative techniques including video, sculpture and photography, and in doing so presenting contemporary insights into the village’s iconic architectural design and examining the experiences of Bournville residents.

We are thankful to our partners in the preparation and realisation of the publication and exhibition: Grain, The Photography Hub and Network for the West Midlands; The Bournville Village Trust and The Cadbury archive; Grand Union, an artist run exhibition space in Birmingham; Helen Stallard Communications; and An Endless Supply. Our mentors were funded through the ‘Centre for Enhancement of Learning and Teaching’ at Birmingham City University.