‘When I show people this, they think it’s Mordor’: the architect viewing the West Midlands as a national park

Birmingham City University thinktank imagines new approach to urban areas and land use across the region

When I show people this, they think it's Mordor," says landscape architecture professor Kathryn Moore with a smile.

She is pointing at a map of the West Midlands. But instead of buildings, roads and a sprawling canal network, this map shows the natural hills and undulations that lie below the human-made architecture.