The Festival and Xtreme Building is now 3/5 of the way through its run and with 6 weeks to go they’re put up a mid-term report:
What has become clear since we opened is that we have actually created a new public park in Birmingham city centre. The wonderful range of natural vegetation around the site has provided a lovely oasis where people can simply sit and relax.
The Festival of Xtreme Building (FXB) is a 4 month project launched on the 8th June until 30th September 2007. FXB occupies a high profile piece of land in Birmingham city centre. We challenged artists and architects to work together and produce experimental structures to be exhibited on this land, free for all to visit (an open air gallery of unusual structures). Some of these structures were built with the help of ordinary people; communities and school children gained a learning experience by working with design professionals. FXB created a visible platform for creatives to bring their installations and showcase them at the site. We also encouraged performers to use the site as a venue and have hosted many events free of charge, and helped to promote and market the events.
There follows a fascinating listing of the projects and events that have occured and are planned before concluding with an assurance that this was never conceived as a one-off:
This first year for the Festival of Extreme Building was very much about making partnerships with both private and public sector interests to ensure that we can sustain our activities into the second and third year. We wanted to demonstrate our ability to deliver a high quality event over several months. In future, we hope to increase the level of participation from members of the general public so that they begin to feel that there is a place in their city where they can be creative and express themselves through the built environment.