{"id":217744,"date":"2025-10-22T11:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/217744\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:36:08","slug":"heatherwick-studio-and-manica-win-birmingham-city-stadium-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/217744\/","title":{"rendered":"Heatherwick Studio and Manica win Birmingham City stadium job"},"content":{"rendered":"

The proposed \u00a34 billion Birmingham Sports Quarter would include a 62,000 capacity ground for the Championship club.<\/p>\n

US sports specialist Manica is currently working with Foster + Partners on a replacement for the San Siro<\/a> stadium in Milan.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s chief executive Tom Wagner told a government-backed regional investment summit in Birmingham yesterday (21 October) that Heatherwick and Manica would design a \u2018truly extraordinary [stadium], recognisable around the globe, yet rooted in the history of Birmingham\u2019.<\/p>\n

The AJ understands that other architects in the running for the job were Populous, Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid Architects and AECOM, whose global director of sports is Everton stadium architect Dan Meis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Heatherwick Studio founder and design director Thomas Heatherwick said: \u2018This is going to be an incredible piece of city built around the passions of the Blues fans and the community. Not another spaceship dropped in a car park, which feels dead when there\u2019s not a match, but somewhere that\u2019s alive, connected, grown from the site and from the history of Birmingham itself. We couldn\u2019t be prouder.\u2019<\/p>\n

Manica Architecture president David Manica added. \u2018We\u2019re thrilled to partner with Heatherwick Studio to design an extraordinary new home for Birmingham City Football Club. This new stadium will not only usher in a new era for Birmingham fans but will honour the club\u2019s passionate supporters and storied history.\u2019<\/p>\n

Wagner, who became chief executive of Birmingham City in July 2023 after acquiring the club, first unveiled his vision for a sports quarter in east Birmingham in January 2024. The new home would replace the side\u2019s existing St Andrew\u2019s stadium, which seats 27,500.<\/p>\n

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has supported the plans and, in June, announced \u00a32.4 billion in funding for a West Midlands Metro extension from Birmingham city centre to the planned sports quarter.<\/p>\n

Although Birmingham City has not revealed further details of the Heatherwick-Manica proposals, the sports quarter is expected to include sports facilities, a football academy, community football pitches, commercial and leisure spaces, and residential buildings.<\/p>\n

The AJ understands images of the proposals will be made public in November.<\/p>\n

Speaking to BBC BBC Radio West Midlands following the announcement, Wagner said<\/a>: \u2018We had phenomenal presentations from a number of different, high profile, architects. The designs from start to finish were just unbelievable. This one just happened to stand a bit apart and we felt celebrated not only the history of the club, but more importantly the history of Birmingham and ties together what we\u2019re trying to do in the future and the incredible past of the City of a Thousand Trades.\u2019<\/p>\n

Stephen Haines, Birmingham City\u2019s chief commercial officer, added: \u2018Thomas Heatherwick and his team, I think, are the best architects in the world anyway. They\u2019re British and I think Tom [Wagner\u2019s] choice to choose British is really important.<\/p>\n

\u2018What this stadium will do is grow out of the ground, it will be part of the tradition of the club. It\u2019s not a spaceship that\u2019s landed and then you throw events around it. Its to do with where we come from, where we\u2019ve been, and what the club is going to be. It\u2019s going to be very impressive, state of the art, and modern as hell, but it\u2019s going to nod to the past.\u2019<\/p>\n

Birmingham Sports Quarter would be Manica and Heatherwick Studio\u2019s first project in Birmingham. Heatherwick previously designed a new riverside stand for Premier League side Fulham, before Populous took over on the project.<\/p>\n

Manica has been working with Grimshaw on the YTL Arena in Bristol, converting former aircraft carriers for Concorde into a new music venue, which is due to open in 2028. Practice founder David Manica previously worked on London\u2019s O2 Arena as an employee of HOK Sport (now Populous).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The proposed \u00a34 billion Birmingham Sports Quarter would include a 62,000 capacity ground for the Championship club. US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-217744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}