Winner announced in September

Amanda Levete at the press launch of her V&A Exhibition Road Quarter

Source: Elizabeth Hopkirk

Lendlease has brought in Amanda Levete to join the jury which will pick a winner in an international design competition to find an architect to design a new home for the Birmingham Markets.

The firm was chosen in January as Birmingham council’s development partner for a £1.5bn scheme to revamp a city centre site called Smithfield.

The plot in Digbeth covers 17ha and will be home to Birmingham’s Bull Ring retail markets as well as leisure and cultural space, a public square and more than 2,000 homes. The scheme will take 15 years to complete.

The new markets building will be included in the first phase of work with practices given until 8 July to send in stage one submissions with a shortlist announced just over a week later.

A mid-tender charrette will be held on 8 August with a winner chosen the following month following interviews with the jury panel.

Levete (pictured) has been appointed as an external architectural advisor.

The Smithfield site is next door to the Bull Ring shopping centre, which includes the Selfridges store designed by Future Systems – the practice Levete headed with her late former husband Jan Kaplicky.

Work on the scheme, which is due to be carried out by Lendlease’s construction arm, is due to start on site in spring 2022 for an opening three years later.