City welcomes giant brain

Victoria Square is the location for the brain sculpture

A giant sculpture of a human brain is to be unveiled in Birmingham on Wednesday.

The city centre sculpture, 23,000 times larger than the real thing, marks the soon-to-open Millennium Point, a £114m Lottery funded science, technology and learning institution.

Millennium Point and everything in it are about expanding your mind so we've chosen the brain as a symbol of what we're about

Menna Rees-Steer

The brain will be on display until Millennium Point opens to the public on 29 September.

Symbol

Menna Ross-Steer, Millennium Point's Head of Communications, said: "Millennium Point and everything in it are about expanding your mind so we've chosen the brain as a symbol of what we're about."

"Some of the best brains in the country have been involved in its designing, building and fitting and all its contents.

"It will make people think differently about the impact of science and technology on all our lives," Steer said.

The centre was designed by Grimshaw and partners, and is the size of six football pitches. Construction is almost complete.

It will house several different buildings including Thinktank, Birmingham's new museum of science and discovery, an IMAX cinema and the Technology Innovation Centre.

One of several regeneration projects in Birmingham, it will also be the site of the University of the First Age for children aged 11 to 14.

There will also be offices, shops, bars and cafes.

The brain will feature heavily in Millennium Point's advertising campaign.

National stadium

Birmingham is also bidding to host the new national football stadium.

Politically there is growing support for national projects to be built outside of London.

Birmingham has earmarked a possible site near the National Exhibition Centre, which boasts good road, rail and air links, as an ideal base for a national football stadium.