Lendlease appoints Selfridges designer to jury

birmingham smithfield

Birmingham Smithfield

Amanda Levete has been appointed to the jury of an international design competition to find an architect for a new home for the Birmingham Markets.

Amanda Levete at the press launch of her V&A Exhibition Road Quarter

Amanda Levete

Lendlease was chosen in January as Birmingham council’s development partner for a £1.5bn scheme to revamp a city centre site called Smithfield.

The plot in Digbeth covers 17ha and will be home to Birmingham’s Bull Ring retail markets as well as leisure and cultural space, a public square and more than 2,000 homes. The scheme will take 15 years to complete.

The new markets building will be included in the first phase of work with practices given until July 8 to send in stage one submissions. The shortlist will be announced just over a week later.

A mid-tender charrette will be held on August 8 with a winner chosen the following month following interviews with the jury panel.

Levete has been appointed as an external architectural advisor.

The Smithfield site is next door to the Bull Ring shopping centre, which includes the Selfridges store designed by Future Systems – the practice Levete headed with her former husband, the late Jan Kaplicky.

Work on the scheme, which is due to be carried out by Lendlease’s construction arm, is due to start on site in spring 2022 for an opening three years later.