Buried Plane by Roger Hiorns

Tapestry provided development consent and project advice to the Turner-prize nominated artist Roger Hiorns and Ikon Gallery to support the installation of an artwork, comprising a 737 aircraft, in the Port Icknield area of Birmingham. An entire, decommissioned Boeing 737 was to be buried on vacant formerly industrial land beside the Birmingham Canal (Old Line), as part of a meanwhile use, before redevelopment of the site by Urban Splash to become Port Loop. The aircraft would be fully accessible to visitors who would descend a spiral staircase to enter the cabin where they could sit and look out the windows to the earth beside them.

The project involved technical challenges including the physical relocation of a former aircraft to the site; ground contamination; stabilising the craft from rising ground water; and gaining consent for a temporary use and development including the infrastructure needed to visitors to access and enter the interior of the plane. We provided planning advice to the Gallery and represented them in pre-application meetings with Birmingham City Council. Though the project did not proceed, we were able to identify a route to planning consent and work with a multi-disciplinary team to improve the feasibility of concept.