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 in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

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 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, Renzo ...

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

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

. Although Selfridges was physically integrated with the Bullring Shopping Centre 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 supp ...

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 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 London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 a ...

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