Nigel Coates and Doug Branson work on Midlands Arts Centre

When the 1960s-built arts centre relaunches, it will feature a new gallery for contemporary art, a refurbished theatre and cinema, rehearsal studios, new foyers and café spaces, and a landscaped terraced garden area with space for open-air performances.

The new spaces are formed by uniting ‘the ragtag of buildings that have grown up over the past 40 years, using a large two-storey building that has been placed over the top of them’, says a Mac spokesman.

Coates and Branson, who used to run Branson Coates Architecture together, collaborated on the concepts for the refurbishment.

Branson was recently struck off the register of architects for failing to be adequately insured.