TITLE: Birmingham Open Media Studio & Gallery (BOM)
LOCATION: Birmingham City Centre
COLLABORATORS: Birmingham Open Media, Fotofilia
PROJECT TYPE: Design, Construction, Strategic Planning, Fundraising
This project involves a full architectural design process for a regional centre on open media and photography. The facility is located in Norfolk House, a conversion of a former lower ground retail unit and will include a public gallery, photography studios, darkroom, art studio, co-working spaces, cafe and event/workshop space.
The unit will cover two full storeys and an impressive mezzanine, cantilevering over the main gallery and cafe space, with a visually striking timber screen. The design maximises the angular spaces left over from decades of internal alterations and encourages visual and physical connections between the various activities using key openings and range of translucent materials.
As part of the design process, Co.LAB developed a spatial strategy for the organisation and mapped this against their proposed facilities to highlight the relationship between creative practice and space usage. Co.LAB also worked with BOM in raising capital investment for the facility, receiving a grant from UnLtd Do It Award to improve social enterprises in the local area. BOM opened in November 2014. More images and information are featured on the subsequent blog posts.
\\ 
You must be logged in to post a comment.