Urban Ambition

First off, Middlesbrough Borough Council has announced plans to completely renovate the entire townscape. It's going to be no minor feat; it involves merging Middlesbrough with Stockton into a 'cityspace' across 20 years, creating a new transport infrastructure, landscaping the town centre with a new age park and developing an ultra-urban business and leisure site.

Brave New World: Middlehaven

A brave new world has also been unveiled for Middlesbrough's Middlehaven site. The Council's plans for a carbon neutral waterfront development have already won architecture's answer to an 'oscar' at one of the world's most prestigious property events, outshining the likes of projects in Dublin, Hong Kong, St Petersburg, Paris, Turkey and London. It is predicted that the £200 million project, focused on reclaiming Middlesbrough's Docklands just outside the Riverside Stadium, will create 750 new homes, 1000 new jobs and will be the biggest carbon neutral development in the UK. Developers Bioregional Quintain plan to create a community where people will live in a series of individually designed sugar cube apartment blocks, each one described as a neighbourhood in a box. These boxes may resemble a wine rack or the toppling tower game Jenga. Work is due to begin on the first set of sugar cubes this year and the entire project should be complete by 2012.

mima Sets The Tone

Other major regeneration projects have set the tone for Middlesbrough's ongoing renaissance. A new £19 million art gallery, Middlesbrough Institute for Modern Art (mima), was launched in 2007 in a made-over 'Centre Square'. A landmark development designed by Erick van Egeraat Associated Architects, the gallery is housed in a glass-fronted building and bordered by an open park area with illuminated fountains and urban landscaping.

Innovation

Industry-wise, the town is still innovating. This time the focus is on millennial technologies and products, such as renewable energy and digital media production. New biorenewable and carbon neutral companies are already moving into the old steel yards and The University of Teesside provides world-class computer animation training for Hollywood-bound graduates. Middlesbrough is no longer a heavy industrial town, although there are areas around which still support chemical, fertiliser and iron and steel production.

Useful Links

Stockton-Middlesbrough Initiative
Tees Valley Regeneration
Gazette Live - Regeneration Focus
BBC Tees - Regeneration Focus

Digital CityThe University of Teesside