Birmingham

Birmingham

VU.CITY Birmingham is a 15cm accurate, interactive and immersive 3D model of England's second city.

With VU.CITY Birmingham you can explore potential massing, import and test refined designs, highlight pain points and realise opportunities. Now all stakeholders can collaborate on solutions for smarter decisions to create the best possible city
for Birmingham.

157sq km
MODELLED TO 15CM ACCURACY
615,669
TREES, ACCURATE TO HEIGHT & CANOPY
245,168
Buildings
sq km
MODELLED TO 15CM ACCURACY
TREES, ACCURATE TO HEIGHT & CANOPY
Buildings

With its population set to reach 1,240,000 by 2030, Birmingham is also England’s fastest growing city. Housing and commercial and transport development needs are rapidly increasing: with much of the city and surrounding urban areas underdeveloped, Birmingham is set to be a hot spot of activity.

Birmingham’s flagship projects include The Curzon Street Masterplan which outlines proposals for 141 hectares of regeneration envisioned to bring 36,000 new jobs, 4,000 new homes and 600,000 square metres of commercial development. The Smithfield Market redevelopment will also create a brand new innovative and sustainable city quarter with jobs, amenities and over 3,000 much-needed new homes. This 17-hectare development will anchor an expanded city centre, helping to accelerate a wider transformation of Birmingham and supporting long-term economic and social prosperity.

As Birmingham rapidly expands due to new developments like these and much-needed regeneration, the requirement for an open and transparent platform which can visualise and tell the story of this metropolitan giant’s reshaping is key. VU.CITY Birmingham is already meeting this by enabling all parties to see schemes in context – at a macro level and city-wide, to clearly understand where opportunities lie, such as for building densely. The implications of proposals for Birmingham can be readily and easily understood thanks to the platform’s data layers revealing a wealth of information about, for instance, locally- and statutory-listed buildings, tree preservation orders, and consented schemes.

Users of VU.CITY Birmingham include ADG, Sandwell Council, JLL, Iceni, Node and CityScape Digital who have already discovered the model’s many benefits, from being able to instantly understand and assess a site’s challenges and potential, to simplifying the planning application, or improving how everyone involved can collaborate in a simple, single platform.

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VU.CITY Birmingham: Highlights

Create, edit and assess massing

Easily test massing to understand design feasibility.

Assess multiple initial massing options at an early stage and GEA potential quickly with VU.CITY Birmingham.
Test Massing

Assess multiple initial massing options at an early stage and GEA potential quickly.

VU.CITY Consented Schemes Timeline. View all major consented schemes across Birmingham.
Consented Schemes Timeline

Realise a site’s potential by viewing and assessing recently consented developments across Birmingham.

Easily import your designs from external 3D software (such as Revit, Rhino, SketchUp & 3ds Max) into the model of Birmingham and test how they will work in situ.
Import Designs

Easily import your designs from external 3D software (such as Revit, Rhino, SketchUp & 3ds Max) into the Birmingham model and test how they will work in situ.

Quickly view and assess the initial impact of light from your proposed developments in VU.CITY’s model of Birmingham.
Sunlight Analysis

Quickly view and assess the initial impact of light from your proposed developments.

Conduct high-level townscape and visual impact assessments with an accurate 3D model of Birmingham.
Camera Studies and Presenter Tool

Conduct high-level townscape and visual impact assessments. Agree on key views to analyse further. Select key views and confidentially present your proposals to take stakeholder on the journey of design.

Use an accurate 3D model of Birmingham to assess where your scheme can be seen from with Zone of Theoretical Visibility.
Zone of Theoretical Visibility

Save time by eliminating unnecessary views for analysis. Understand where your scheme can be seen from and which views are critical to assess.

Work more collaboratively on designs with VU.CITY's 3D model of Birmingham
Annotate with Tags

Mark up comments and actions and easily collaborate on a site or scheme with project team members.

Birmingham_Hub_Collaboration
Scope, Design & Collaborate

VU.CITY's project collaboration space, the Hub, allows you to seamlessly communicate with stakeholders, to make better design & planning decisions, faster.

   Data Layers

   Data Layers

Consented Schemes Timeline

   Data Layers

Conservation Areas

   Data Layers

Listed Buildings

   Data Layers

Locally Listed Buildings

   Data Layers

Statutorily Listed Buidlings

   Data Layers

Tree Preservation Order

   Data Layers

Trees

   Data Layers

Annual Average Household Income 2021

   Data Layers

Energy Performance Certificates

   Data Layers

Deprivation Index 2021

   Data Layers

Population Density 2021

   Data Layers

Land Registry Query

Birmingham Coverage

Can't see your area? Get in touch.  
VU.CITY is constantly expanding in coverage.

SUBMITTING A SCHEME FOR ANALYSIS

How can using VU.CITY benefit my application?

Create smart cities the smart way

VU.CITY helps organise, visualise, and analyse city data in the clearest and most accessible way to make better decisions.

VU.CITY covers the whole of London and 25 major UK and international cities.

Quickly identify and appraise sites.  VU.CITY's visualization, design functionality and planning data, allow you to optimise your designs.

Transform design and planning

Now everyone involved can have a clear, universal understanding of what’s proposed and why, in a single, secure place. VU.CITY makes decision-making democratic and fair.

Build trust and collaboration

Remove barriers and minimise risks early. Have confidence in your designs and plans. Increase buy-in for project success.

Improve
outcomes
Test out ideas in situ, from one building to a masterplan. Create your vision and submissions with confidence.
Collate site information in one place
Communicate complex spatial arrangements
Make documentation stand up and stand out
Speed up planning conversations
Strengthen relationships
Create winning submissions
Discover where there is potential for change, and help everyone easily understand what’s involved and why.
Collate site information in one place
Communicate complex spatial arrangements
Speed up the planning process
Speed up planning conversations
Strengthen relationships
Create winning submissions
Reduce guesswork and unwanted costs – make the right decisions for the right outcomes, faster.
Appraise site capacity and viability, faster
Save time and costs through collaboration
Reduce planning uncertainties; increase buy-in
Speed up the planning process with better informed decisions
Sell or lease earlier to realise profits sooner
Understand designs and plans with ease, and make decisions with clarity to benefit your city and your communities.
Make the best possible decisions, quicker
Collate site, scheme and planning information in one place
Standardise decision-making
Have informed and transparent conversations
Improve how you consult on policies and plans
Understand the cumulative effects of planning changes

In your words

“We’re bringing in architects and our clients and different consultants in one room and we’re viewing the drawing, the architecture and the massing through VU.CITY.”
Charlotte Orrell
Senior Planner at Iceni Projects
"The digitisation of planning as outlined in the Whitepaper presents an exciting step in speeding up the planning process and improving engagement with communities. We are already working with VU.CITY and some of our local authority partners to be a leader in digital consultation in line with the ambitions outlined in the new government Whitepaper."
VU.CITY logo
David Bloy
Planning Director - British Land
"VU.CITY allows us to convey ideas when physical engagement is not possible, assisting the decision-making process in a way in which all stakeholders can relate to the proposal and its impact in the surroundings."
VU.CITY logo
Rosa Gonzalez
Consultant, Landscape, Townscape & VIA - Turley
“Councils can see, planning officers can see very quickly when they see a development of VU.CITY that it makes sense to them. They really feel like we're not hiding anything from them. Historically, you'd give them five or six views and they'd go, "Oh, you cherry-picked the best ones." And now we can take them through that process and that's helped massively.”
VU.CITY logo
Laurie Handcock
Director - Iceni Projects
"VU.CITY gives us the full visual story in a matter of seconds."
VU.CITY logo
Paul Finch
Editor - Architects Journal
"VU.CITY provided a valuable resource on our work for Southwark Charities for an emerging scheme along Blackfriars Road in central London where, working with Fathom Architects, we were able to test different versions in context, have live discussions, and conclude the best approach."
VU.CITY logo
Rosa Gonzalez
Consultant, Landscape, Townscape & VIA - Turley

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VU.CITY is all yours to try out. Let your imagination run free in designing, planning and seeing an entire city develop right before your eyes. 

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See for yourself why leading architects, developers and planners across the UK and Ireland trust VU.CITY to help them understand projects in context and bring everyone, everywhere together.

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