The Selfridges Building is a landmark building in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The building is part of the

Bullring Shopping Centre The Bull Ring is a major shopping area in central Birmingham England, and has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when its market was first held. Two shopping centres have been built in the area; in the 1960s, and the ...

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 architecture, 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 Fo ...

. It has a

steel framework Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The developm ...

with

sprayed concrete Shotcrete, gunite (), or sprayed concrete is concrete or mortar conveyed through a hose and pneumatically projected at high velocity onto a surface, as a construction technique, first used in 1907 invented by Carl Akeley. It is typically r ...

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 included as a

desktop background A wallpaper or background (also known as a desktop background, desktop picture or desktop image on computers) is a digital image (photo, drawing etc.) used as a decorative background of a graphical user interface on the screen of a computer, smar ...

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 released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

Architecture

The architecture firm

were appointed by

Selfridge's Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of high-end department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge ...

then chief executive, Vittorio Radice, to design only the third store outside

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. 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 Anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts. The process is called ''anodizing'' because the part to be treated forms the anode electrode of an electr ...

aluminium discs mounted on a blue background.

Awards

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

Award for Architecture 2004 *

Concrete Society The Concrete Society is a UK based Nonprofit organization, non-profit company that was founded in 1966 in response to the increasing need for a single organisation embracing all those interested in concrete. On its formal inauguration, on 13 Octob ...

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 body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

, Project Award Winner 2004 *Civic Trust Award 2004 *

Retail Week Retail Week is a London-based news website, data service, events producer and magazine covering the retail industry, primarily in the United Kingdom. History and profile Founded in 1988 by financial journalist Patience Wheatcroft and her husban ...

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