SCEPTICISM ELIMINATED: WHEN A NEW JEWEL APPEARED IN AN OLD JEWELLERY DISTRICT

After the Great Fire of London in 1666, timber construction was banned for reasons of fire safety, and was replaced by the state with construction methods involving bricks and clinker facades. This resulted in a tradition for and a love of ceramic facades which continues to this day in England.

A nerve-shredding test regarding facade design in an already unusual construction project. Because in the legendary “Jewellery Quarter”, which sees itself as a historical synthesis of the arts and is keen to achieve world heritage status, redevelopment is otherwise underway.

The Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham is indeed seen as the cradle of many astounding and pioneering discoveries and as a pace-setter for the industrial revolution in the early 1900s. And even if those flourishing times, when as many as 30,000 people worked here, have long since passed, fervent efforts are being made to revive this area by means of tourism and a redevelopment framework contract to be implemented by 2012, leading to the creation of at least 2,500 jobs and the filling of the area with residential housing and commercial activity. On the European Industrial Heritage Route, the Jewellery Quarter, with its historical places, old buildings and museums, already ranks as a real highlight, and TripAdvisor has called it the third best tourist attraction in Europe, behind only the Pantheon in Rome and the National Gallery in London.

The architectural agency Rusthon Architects was able to meet the stringent requirements and thus be awarded the contract. The most suitable product for dealing with the delicate subject of “facade cladding” was and is Keravette^® sand yellow. And perhaps it is the almost 130 years of working with ceramics and the love with which we manufacture our products that resonated with the decision makers. We certainly hope so, just as we hope that the majority of the tourists visit the Jewellery Quarter in order to experience the heritage and history, rather than because of the fact that Lady Diana’s coffin furniture was created there.