Imperial War Museum North
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The Imperial War Museum North is a war museum in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. It opened on the 5th July 2002 and was designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind and constructed at a cost of £28 million by Sir Robert McAlpine with engineering by Arup. The building has a highly complex geometry with sloping floors and ceilings and few perpendicular surfaces, designed to induce disorientation reminiscent of that caused by war. The large tower is known as the 'Air Shard' and has a viewing/observation platform at the top, accessed by a lift, with a good view of The Lowry and Salford Quays.
The museum features an exhibit called The Big Picture; once an hour, the lights in the main exhibition hall are lowered, photographs and quotations from scenes of war are projected onto all of the walls, and recordings of events echo around the hall. This exhibit completes the unnerving feeling the museum is designed to create.
Admission is free and the museum is open between 10.00am and 5.00pm daily.
The Imperial War Museum North won the 2003 British Construction Industry Building Award.
The museum won the title of 'Large Visitor Attraction of the Year' at the 2006 Manchester Tourism Awards. It will now be submitted as an entrant to England's Northwest Tourism Awards. If successful, it will be entered for the national Enjoy England Excellence Awards, representing the Northwest.
It is cited as an example of Deconstructivist Architecture.
[edit] Architectural Concept
Libeskinds' concept for the museum was a globe, shattered by conflict and then reassembled on the site. The 3 elements of the building, the air shard, the earth shard and the water shard represent the arenas where conflicts are fought.
The space frame interior of the air shard tower |
[edit] External link
Categories: 2002 architecture | Buildings and structures in Greater Manchester | Military museums in England | Museums in England | Visitor attractions in Greater Manchester | Deconstructivism | Museums sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport | Military and war museums | Trafford | Daniel Libeskind buildings