Taking advantage of the occasion offered by the Commonwealth Games which start 25 July, along with the opening of the new stadium designed by Ove Arup and Associates, Manchester seems to be entering a new golden age.
The latest new entry, for the beginning of July is the spectacular ‘offspring’ of the London Imperial War Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind.
“I wrapped a ceramic teapot in a plastic bag and dropped it from my window”, is how in a recent interview the architect – of Polish origin, educated in the US, citizen of Israel and now based in Berlin – described how the idea for the building came about. “I had the idea of the world as fragile, but I also wanted to see how it breaks. I saw a structural breakage of perfect geometry, and I saw that I could select three pieces that would be enough to represent the entire curvature of the universe. I was also aware of the light here. It often rains. The curves give life to the building”.
The building, clad entirely in aluminium, is broken into three pieces, symbolising three fields of conflict: air, earth and water. The tower, 29m high represents air; the aluminium roof which covers the exhibition space is the curve of the earth; the smallest fragment, which includes a restaurant with a view of the canal, represents water.
This is the first project by Libeskind to be built in the UK and is his third museum, following on from the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the small Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabrück, also in Germany.
until 3.11.2002
Photographs of Imperial War Museum North by Len Grant
Imperial War Museum North
Trafford Wharf Road, Trafford Park, Manchester
T +44-161-8364000; F +44-161-8364091
http://www.iwmnorth.org.uk
