The work has commenced and will be complete during 2022. The store will remain open throughout and trade as normal.
BAM is currently behind a quarter of a billion pounds of new buildings in the half-mile walk between Chamberlain Square and Snow Hill.
The scheme will see the building’s 16,000 aluminium disks removed, cleaned, restored and stored while the building’s facade is replaced and a new layer of insulation installed.
During the work, the building will be wrapped in a striking 'Dogtooth Flower' patterned hoarding created by Birmingham-born fashion designer and artist Osman Yousefzada.
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A team of architects, cladding specialists and structural engineers will deliver the complex programme of works and restore the building.
Once this has taken place, the building will be re-painted in the original eye-catching Yves Klein Blue before the disks are re-attached. The building, whose radical design was inspired by a 1960s Paco Rabanne chainmail dress, has become one of Birmingham's most distinctive contemporary landmarks and a tourist attraction in its own right. It will retain its architectural might once the work is complete and the wrap and scaffolding are removed.
Since the building's original construction there have been major advances both in construction and building standards as well as insulation. The renovation works and insulation upgrade will deliver an improvement in U Values (the rate of transfer of heat through a building), making the building more energy efficient to run whilst improving its carbon footprint. This is consistent with BAM's and Hammerson’s Net Positive strategy.
