Building Skills: A Material Strategy for Birmingham and the West Midlands
<p>“For a climate transition that is just and democratized, as much agency as possible should be devolved to the level of the community.” —Dark Matter Labs</p> <p>Ladywood, our neighborhood in Birmingham, shares similar stories with many other inner-city districts throughout the UK: its proximity to the city centre masking the reality of under- investment in communities and the built environments they call home. Our neighborhoods manifest through a multitude of relationships; from the canals and local bodies of water, to childhood experiences; from a single street or estate, to an entire bus route – the only consistency being that there is no singular definition to draw a hard boundary around. CIVIC SQUARE, from its origins as Impact Hub Birmingham, is intentionally embedded within this fluid and ever-shifting dynamic of our places.</p> <p>Today we are seeing how multiple globalized systems are entangled in ways that have cascading impacts on society and the natural world we rely on. This global ‘polycrisis’ affects every aspect of our lives, and is experienced most viscerally as many impacts begin to converge on the places we live, play, eat, rest, learn, love, heal and grow…</p>
Authors: Material Cultures, Sara Pereira
Contributors: Summer Islam, Daria Moatazed-Keivani, Shreya Sarin, CIVIC SQUARE
Graphic Designer: Villalba Studio
Illustrator: Material Cultures
Material Cultures, CIVIC SQUARE
Part of: Material Cultures Reports