The Selfridges Building is a landmark building in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England. The building is part of the

Bullring Shopping Centre The Bull Ring is a major shopping area in central Birmingham, England, consisting of open-air and indoor market stalls as well as a large indoor Shopping mall, shopping centre. The Bull Ring has been an important feature of Birmingham since ...

and houses Selfridges Department Store. The building was completed in 2003 at a cost of £60 million and designed by the architecture firm

Future Systems Future Systems was a London-based architectural and design practice, formerly headed by Directors Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete. Future Systems was founded by Kaplický and David Nixon after working with Denys Lasdun, Norman Foster, Ren ...

. It has a steel framework with sprayed concrete facade. Since its construction, the building has become an iconic architectural landmark and seen as a major contribution to the regeneration of Birmingham. It is one of the backgrounds as part of the Architecture theme in

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

Architecture

The architecture firm

were appointed by Selfridge's then chief executive, Vittorio Radice, to design only the third store outside

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Although Selfridges was physically integrated with the

the client wanted a distinct design approach which would set the store apart from the rest of the development and become an instantly recognisable signpost for the brand. The building's facade is curved, wrapping around the corner of Moor Street and Park Street. The facade comprises 15,000 anodised aluminium discs mounted on a blue background.

Awards

RIBA ''Riba'' (, or , ) is an Arabic word used in Islamic law and roughly translated as " usury": unjust, exploitative gains made in trade or business. ''Riba'' is mentioned and condemned in several different verses in the Qur'an3:130

Award for Architecture 2004 * Concrete Society Awards, Overall Winner 2004 * British Constructional Steelwork Association's Structural Steel Awards 2004 *Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, Retail Innovation 2004 *

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a Charitable organization, charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters ar ...

, Project Award Winner 2004 *Civic Trust Award 2004 * Retail Week Awards, Retail Destination of the Year 2004

Gallery

File:Selfridges exterior, Birmingham.jpg, Detail of aluminium disc cladding File:Birmingham Selfridges building.jpg, View from the Bull Ring File:Birmingham - Ringbull - Selfridges 5.JPG, Road level view of building File:Selfridges interior1.jpg, Interior escalators File:The Bullring Building.jpg, Side view of the building

References

External links

* Buildings and structures in Birmingham, West Midlands Department store buildings in the United Kingdom

Recipients of Civic Trust Awards {{UK-struct-stub