In this reading David Parker and Paul Long talk about the urban decline and rebirth of Birmingham after post-war. He mentions about how the importance given to culture of Birmingham has been destroyed because of the so called urban imaginary. He exemplifies how "Buildings are imagined through words and images before they are constructed in bricks and mortar." This reading depicts the changes the city has undergone till today. This shows how their has been a significant amount of transformation like new shopping malls, roundabouts and underpasses that has played a role in distorting the beauty of culture in the city.
Kevin Lynch terms this crucial element of urban imaginary as the 'image of the city'. Personal hopes that are invested in are often thwarted by the ambitions of architects and urban planners. The Urban Task Force observed, 'the successful urban regeneration was design-led'. He describes about how Birmingham has become industrialized surrounded by 'sprawling motorways, bisected by canals and punctuated by modern shopping centers', which make Birmingham seem like a concrete maze. These things after the post-war has erased the memories of Victorian slums from both reality and memory. These has destroyed skylines in the city and anything that can be closely oriented with the image of the city and subordinated style to efficiency.
After a series of downfalls, the New Birmingham plans reflected a general intellectual shift away from the heroic modernism to a post pragmatic and piecemeal approach. This renovation, attracted many building a new image, or symbolic economy. Now after the rebirth Birmingham has become a 'creative and learning quarter'. The idea of Selfridges, one of Birmingham's iconic buildings, was a design by Gordon Selfridge who sought to combine 'shopping with entertainment'.
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