Imperial War Museum North, Trafford, Manchester
About the Project
- Principal designer: Studio Libeskind
- Client:Imperial War Museum
- Principal contractor: Sir Robert McAlpine
- Contract value: £28 million
As
part of the Imperial War Museum's aim to provide opportunities for the
public to benefit from its extensive collection of exhibits over a wider
area of the UK, it commissioned a competition for a museum for the North
of England.
A regeneration project built on previously industrial land located in Trafford Park, Greater Manchester, the building's distinct form has become a landmark.
The three zones of human conflict, air, water and earth, are represented in three different structures, known as 'shards'. The towering air shard acts as a beacon; the water shard, sculpted like a crashing wave, contains restaurant facilities overlooking the Manchester Ship Canal while the main exhibition is housed in the earth shard.
As innovative as the building itself, the exhibition includes a series of multimedia presentations projected onto the internal surfaces formed by the walls of the building and also the external faces of the structures, and rooms where the public can handle historical artefacts under the supervision of staff.
The judges said:
" A highly popular and innovative museum project."