| Imperial War Museum North | |||
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| Established | 5 July 2002 | ||
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| Location | Trafford, Greater Manchester, England | ||
| Type | War museum | ||
| Website | Imperial War Museum North Website | ||
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The Imperial War Museum North is a war museum at The Quays, Trafford Wharf, Trafford Park, Greater Manchester M17 1TZ, England, a part of the country that was attacked during the Blitz and again by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1996. Located in an historically impoverished area, the museum is world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind's first building in Britain. Opened on 5 July 2002, it is one of five branches of the Imperial War Museum, and the first outside of southeast England.1
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Museum
The museum focuses on individuals and their relation to wars, past and present. In particular, according to its website, the museum "tells the story of how war has shaped the lives of British and Commonwealth citizens since 1914".2
Its main exhibition space houses the "Big Picture Show", a collection of projected images and sounds that play every hour, on the hour. The museum also houses war machinery and hosts rotating exhibitions.3
Architecture
Inspired by the notion of a globe, shattered by conflict and then reassembled, Libeskind's design for the building fragments the museum into three enormous parts. Each "shard" bears a curvature identical to that of our planet, so the ostensibly distorted angles the museum's walls make with the floor are actually at exact right angles to the earth. The three shards correspond to the three arenas of war: Earth, Air, and Water.
The Earth Shard, the floor of which curves, forms the base of the building. Atop the vertical Air Shard, which resembles an airplane hangar, sits an observation deck where visitors can see the city of Manchester. The Water Shard tilts like a boat at sea and contains a restaurant overlooking the Manchester Ship Canal.45
After multiple budget cuts and design modifications, the building was built for £28 million ($65 million) in collaboration with Sir Robert McAlpine and an engineering company, Arup. Admission to the museum is free.
Recognition
- Silver Award for "Large Visitor Attraction of the year" (2008)6
- Royal Institute of British Architects Award (2004)
- British Construction Industry Building of the Year (2003)
- Visitor Attraction of the Year, Northwest Tourism Board (2003)7
 The east face of the museum, highlighting the aluminium cladding |
 Canal entrance |
 Interior looking up into the air shard tower |
 Close-up detail of aluminium panel detailing |
 Water shard cafe |
 The big picture |
 The space frame interior of the air shard tower |
The main entrance, showing the air shard tower. |
References
- ^ McLaren, Leah (July 6, 2002), "Triumph over adversity", The Globe and Mail: R5
- ^ Imperial War Museum North. "History of the Imperial War Museum". Retrieved on 2008-06-17.
- ^ Imperial War Museum North. "Special Exhibitions". Retrieved on 2008-06-17.
- ^ "About the Building and its Architect". Imperial War Museum North. Retrieved on 2008-02-03.
- ^ Libeskind, Daniel (2004). Breaking Ground. New York: Riverhead Books, 232. ISBN 1-57322-292-5.
- ^ Imperial War Museum North. "Imperial War Museum North wins Large Attraction of the Year for England's Northwest". Retrieved on 2008-06-17.
- ^ "Greater Manchester's Tourism Industry Celebrate in Style". Marketing Manchester. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
External links
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 12 October 2008, at 08:53.
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