Birmingham Dogs Home

Project Overview

Birmingham Dogs Home has served the West Midlands region since 1892 but its city central location was poor and lacked any external exercise space for the dogs. The site, located on former agricultural land near Birmingham Airport is a strategically excellent location with good transport links.

The design solution for the new home was underpinned and informed by a comprehensive landscape and visual impact assessment that established the likely impacts the development could have on the sensitive location and guided the design. A landscape-led masterplan was produced to illustrate the sensitiveness of the Green Belt location and enhance the local landscape character.

The design of this new exemplar animal welfare centre involved detailed consultation with the Civil Aviation Authority and extensive planning effort. Planning consent was granted for 128 re-homing kennels, a veterinary suite, administration areas, community rooms, large external exercise and enrichment spaces, car parking, native woodland planting to the boundary and a large, semi- natural grassland area for open day events.

Creating a low impact, light-touch design, the use of subtle ground modelling has helped to create a seamless transition between structure and landscape. The single storey building has a grass roof to minimise its visual impact and the materials used have been carefully chosen to reflect the local agricultural vernacular.