As the Lead Designer for Curzon Street Station Neven had to find mutual ground between the architectural aspirations of Birmingham City and the technical and functional needs of HS2. Birmingham’s deep engineering heritage proved fertile ground and resulted in a strapline: “The Engineering is the Architecture”. This stood the project in good stead. However Truth and Beauty are not always good bedfellows and this is a notoriously slippery area open to misinterpretation from all sides. Using references to architectural history, the engineering and architectural traditions out of which the Grimshaw practice grew, not to mention Curzon Street Station itself Neven will attempt to unpick some common misconceptions and shine a light on some of the questions with which he has had to wrestle over his long career.
