Image: Snug Architects
Construction on a 50m-high ‘mobius strip’ made up of one million bricks near Birmingham could start this year, after a planning application was submitted to North Warwickshire Borough.
The planned landmark, called the Wall of Answered Prayer has been conceived by a Christian charity of the same name, with each of the one million bricks representing a prayer answered.
It would be visible from the M6 and M42 motorways, aircraft flying in and out of Birmingham Airport, and HS2 if it ends up being built.
Construction is due to start this year in time for completion ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Snug Architects won an international design competition to design the Wall of Answered Prayer, which is the brainchild of former Leicester City Football Club chaplain Richard Gamble and aims to provoke an ongoing conversation around the purpose and value of prayer.
Paul Bulkeley, founding director of Snug Architects, said: “We are all very excited to see this impressive project a step closer to reality. It’s a structure of national significance and we are honoured to have played a part in the vision and the team that brings such a large-scale monument to the heart of the UK.”
Carl Brookes, director of engineering simulation at Ramboll, which is also involved in the project said: “It is not often that opportunities to work on such ground-breaking architecture occur, and so we are absolutely delighted to be working with Snug and The Wall of Answered Prayer team on delivering this national monument. To develop the engineering required to make the truly radical and gravity defying form of the Mobius strip reality will be both challenging and thrilling. Undoubtedly this will be an inspirational, thought-provoking and iconic structure for generations to see and visit.”
