The Manchester Skyline for the New Millennium

8/14/2019 The Manchester Skyline for the New Millennium

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THE MANCHESTER SKYLINE FOR THENEW MILLENNIUM

- HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT The Site: Salford Quays

- THE ARCHITECTS James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Daniel Libeskind- THE BUILDINGS The Lowry-1997/2000; The Millennium Foot-Bridge-2000;

Imperial War Museum North-2000/2002

- EXPERIENCING TODAY- CONCLUSION

Text and lllustrations :

JOAQUIM MANUEL GRAA DA PAZ

MANCHESTER - January 2007


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THE MANCHESTER SKYLINE FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM

- HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT The Site: Salford Quays

-Above: Archive photographs from the collection of Mike Dilger,who ran the White Lion public house in Castlefield

The Manchester Ship Canal, one of the last major canals constructed in Britain, was opened in

1894. Considered at the time, the largest engineering work carried out in Britain, it was planed toallow ocean-going ships to reach the city. Later in 1905 the largest dock no. 9 was constructed,

being the docks then regarded as the fourth most important port in this country. This important

connection to Liverpool trough the Ship Canal, was permitting then the local industry to better

compete and distribute its production trough the rest of the world, and in that way contributing for

the leading role Manchester had to play in the Industrial Revolution occurring. But lately the

development of new and bigger ships, container ports and motorway links have made them obsolete,

and in the later 1980s, the docks were closed.

From any disaster, for more dramatic they could be, something positive can always be found, and

even death can be faced as the necessary turning point for the nature renewal.

That seems to be a kind of rule, which can be applied to any other aspect of life or human activity,so, also Manchester, as a social organism took the opportunity found from the destruction caused by

the IRA bombing in 1996, to start a new cycle of renewal.

And, as a new century and a new millennium began, also in Manchester new ideas start arising in

the horizon. So, its here where the renewal and the re-dimensioning of the image of Manchester

starts taking place.The Salford Docks have now been redeveloped as Salford Quays, and bringing

the renewal of the city to his maritime entrance, the area became with these two most interesting

public buildings connected by the bridge, like the big outdoor of Manchester, linking communities

from both sides, and turning the site from a busy working place to a pleasant relaxing public space

attracting and welcoming more people.

With refreshing city planning ideas still taking place, being extended from there through a global

renovation of the image of the city for the new millennium, these buildings, amongst others new

landmarks, like the Urbis and the newest Beetham Tower, by Ian Simpson, partially open as the

Hilton Hotel in June 2006, are changing for ever the Manchester skyline.

But the changes and the renewals always use to cause some concerning in more traditionalist

minds, which, in the case, the architect, (one of the major responsible for the last changes of the

Manchester architecture and particularly for the redesign of the city centre) answered, when talking

at a conference in Manchester about his late creation , and in itself an expression of Manchester

pride, as published by the local press, last December 2006 : Manchester is only now just startingto take shape () we need to grasp this opportunity and go for it, and not worry about Victorian

architecture.


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- THE ARCHITECTS :James Stirling and Michael Wilford

Sir James Frazer Stirling, born in 22 April 1924, in Glasgow, studied architecture from 1945 to

1950 at the University of Liverpool. In 1956 have found his first company with James Gowan and

the best-know result of this cooperation is the Engineering Building in Leicester, noted for istechnical and geometrical character.

From 1963 he had managed the firm alone, but in 1971, Michael Wilford, who was working there

since 1960, became also partner of the firm, and later in 1992, after the death of Sir James Stirling

he was running the firm and has complete the Lowry Project as many any other projects realized

posthumously, like the Staats Galerie in Sttutgart completed in 1994, which still being regarded as

his relevant masterpiece, and for which has been called as master of styles.

Awarded in 1981 with the renowned Pritzker Prize, being granted a knighthood in 1992 and since

1996 having an annual prize for architecture named after him, his concept of architecture was firstly

regarded as brutalist and lately is considered as the leader protagonist of the eclectic post-

modernism, or sharing the paternity with Charles Moore.

He is known for his personal colourful approach and the use of regular, geometrical shapes andwas one of the first defenders of architecture as an independent art, as himself states :

I'm not even sure whether I'm an English Architect, a European or an International Architect. ()

In England in particular there is a peculiar breath of scandal attaching to the pursuit of architecture

as Art. () However, for me, right from the beginning the art of architecture has always been the

priority.

Michael Wilford was born in 1938 in Hartfield, East Sussex England, and studied at the

Northern Polytechnic School of Architecture in London. In 1960 joined the practice which James

Stirling created in 1956.

His work includes art centres, art galleries, museums and libraries all around the world, and has

gain international renown and many of his significant public buildings have been awarded,

including The Lowry Centre in 2001, as before the British Embassy in Berlin also has won the

RIBA European Award.

Michael Wilford is member of Royal Institute of British Architects, and many other Institutes

around the world; has been lecturing since 1975 in many universities in United States, Canada,

Australia and England, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain,

Singapore, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand and lately has being an external examiner

at many UK schools of architecture.

Daniel Libeskind

Daniel Libeskind is one of the most prolific, interesting, influent and energetic architects of our

times.

Born in 1946 in Lodz , Poland, started studying music in Israel, but later has changed to

architecture, becoming graduated in 1970 in New York and post-graduated in History and Theory

of Architecture by the University of Essex (United Kingdom) in 1972.

Soon after, opened his first office in Berlin-Germany in 1989, the same year he won the

competition for the Jewish museum in Berlin, which has been completed and open to public in

September 2001.

In the meantime, he has produced the city museum of Osnabrck, Germany, The Felix Nussbaum

Haus, opened in July 1998, and after that, in July 2002, the Imperial War Museum North in

Manchester, England, was completed and opened to the public.Being firstly awarded, in 1997 by The American Academy of Arts and Letters, his projects and

awards are numerous, including in 2001 the Hiroshima Art Prize, and lately in 2004 for the London

Metropolitan University and Imperial War Museum North.


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The architecture of Daniel Libeskind has been classified as Deconstructivist, for instance by

Jorgen Tietzin, or simply Post-Modernist by many others, but his uncompromising otherness is

also referred by Charles Jenks, and probably himself will refuse this kind of theoretical limitation or

reductionism about his work.

He could be better understood as a conceptual architect and is for sure one of the best living

defenders of architecture as art, for whom the exercise of architecture just make sense as an

expression of the eternal aspirations of the human soul, and whose buildings become artworksthemselves, and, as any other work of art, expressions of individuality, originality and invention,

and not just an imitative application of an artistic style, because as himself states, his architecture is

also a reflexion about the identity and destiny of architecture

So, his work could be rather characterised as conceptual, in the sense they are three-dimensional

translations of the initial ideas of the architect, they are intended to incorporate a meaning, so, the

final work, like any other piece of art, is always auto-biographical and should express in some way

his identity.

And, to this kind of architecture it doesnt makes sense no longer the type of categorisation used

on past; this architecture is individual, it has personality, we could identify the individual style, but

nevermore we could insert it in a kind of school or style as used to be done to what it was called

Edwardian, Victorian or similar.Daniel Libeskind uses a distinctive architectural language, based in a minimalist use of colours,

shapes and materials, but his minimalist purism is not merely abstract but combined instead into a

conceptual language, which makes his buildings easily recognisable, and like the products from his

conceptual Time/Memory/Writing machines, so they become like repositories of memory which the

visitors can read walking trough the space.

Following his own concepts, and still using the Courbusier terminology, we could say that his

buildings act at the end as Machines of Hope, because, like himself said before, you cannot be an

architect if you are not a professional optimist.

- THE BUILDINGS :The Lowry 1997/2000

The Lowry Project, which construction was financed basically by the European Commission and

the City of Salford, includes The Lowry, the Plaza, the Digital World Centre, the lifting footbridge,access routes and transport infrastructure and is part of a wider regeneration project at Salford

Quays.


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The Lowry is a landmark Millennium

building, started being constructed by James

Stirling in 1992 and completed later after his

death, by Michael Wilford from 1997 to

2000.

Covering an area of 24.000 sq.m., includes

galleries of the City of Salfords Lowrycollection, an interactive gallery for children,

one lyric theatre and a courtyard theatre, the

first with 1730 seats and the last one with

450, and many other facilities like bars, caf,

retail shops and hospitality suites.

Having doubled the number of visitors

expected, the project has now become a

'destination' in itself, providing a new focal point within the community, attracting more people to

experience the visual and performing arts, and has already proved to be a catalyst for further

economic regeneration of the Quays.

The building has won several awards including the Royal Institute of British Architects RegionalArchitectural Award 2001, United States Institute for Theatre Technology-Honour Award-2001,

and the Structural Steel Design Commendation Award also in 2001.

The use of glass and metallic surfaces gives to the building a kind of immateriality by reflecting

or absorbing the surrounding light, and it looks externally as a set of geometric masses, where the

different textures of metal, combined with the glass, reinforces the same sense of diversity which

can also be found in the interior, rich in vibrant colours and which creative details, break the

regularity. But also this variety is noted in terms of internal organisation of space, which is easy to

follow and keeps the visual relationship trough the floors as well with the exterior.

The Millennium Foot-Bridge - 2000

The lifting footbridge linking the Lowry with Trafford Wharfside and

the Imperial War Museum was designed by W Middleton of Parkman

Limited and the main engineering contractors were Christiani and Neilsen.

Its span is 92 metre long, provides pedestrian and cycle access across the

canal while permits the regular shipping traffic. Made of glass and metal,

designed in elegant lines, its arched deck was floated 500m along the

Manchester Ship Canal to be lifted into its final position, having a special

barge sailed from Holland to facilitate this manoeuvre. It was completed

in June 1999 but only open to public on 28th April 2000. The four tubular

steel towers, which lifting mechanism is exposed and open to view byvisitors, providing an attractive and educational feature, allows the deck

to be raised 23 metres above the canal waterline when shipping needs to

pass.


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Imperial War Museum-North 2000/2002

From very far, this building catches our

attention expressing in the line of the horizon

its personality, unity and originality by its

distinctive shape and metallic surface like a

blade aggressively pointed to the sky.The external shape of the building is

intended to represent 3 pieces of the globe cut

and intersecting horizontally and vertically,

but also the land, the sea and the air, which,

like the narrow angles of the plan, seem to be

references to the tension, the confrontation

and conflict implicit in every war.

The out look of the building is austere and

cold in terms of colour combination, and

doesnt invite anyone to come in; is isolated, as the access is restricted, looking more like a tank

closed and well defended from the exterior, but it expresses a continuity in the relation betweenoutside and inside, or paraphrasing Robert Venturi, one could say the building combines complexity

and contradiction, in the sense that the apparently simple minimalist exterior contradicts the

labyrinthic organisation of interior space.

However this spatial organisation, is very easy to follow and takes the visitor to cross the course

of history walking around the central open space, being also involved in the atmosphere of the war,

by sound, image and even smell, almost feeling the building trembling by the effect of the bombs

explosions.

So, its not just a simple static building to embellish a place, not only a translation of an idea or

concept into a specific architectural language, not just an artistic building in any particular style buta building that establishes a dialogue with the visitor and poses questions which cannot be ignored

by those whose lives became affected directly by the war and being a reminder for all the other ones.

Its a talking building and still saying weve been living in a constant state of war since the

beginning of the century to our daysand reminding us that we all live in the same planet, this

global village,

which Earth

became, our

global house,

which

architecture is

supposed to turnour home too,

providing the

right roof for it


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- EXPERIENCING TODAY

Since the first time Ive seen this

building, its enigmatic qualities started,

like a sphinx, posing questions to my

mind.

The first one was related with thename: has the building the purpose to be

an affirmation of the pride of British

Empire, or its rather a claim against the

absurdity of all wars committed against

humanity? The answer Ive left for the

next visits, because I also wanted to

cross the bridge and see The Lowry,

which entrance and surrounding space is

exactly the opposite: open and

welcoming.

So, when I return, after walk around the main internal space, Ive start walking up the stairs,which had attracted me from the beginning, and here, the emptiness of the space, the rudeness of the

walls, reminds me straight away what could be the feelings and the psychological atmosphere

experienced by the prisoners of war.

It was at the same time an adventure, because I couldnt previously know where will I arrive,

what could I expect at the end It was in some way an experience of fear, as well, that the

difficulty of walking up reinforces

Then, suddenly, little holes start to appear in the walls and I could have a ray of light from the

outside, like a ray of hope, which is confirmed on arriving at the open, airy and full of light top

floor At this point Ive realised thelabyrinthical qualities of the building,

combined with the symbolic, even

cabalistic properties I could presume

in the intentions of the architect.

When Ive come out of the building

the first proposition it came in my

mind was: this is a talking building,

and it talks very loud so you cannot

ignore what its saying

Ive came out with the strong

impression of seen a differentbuilding, completely different than

anyone Ive seen beforeand

surprised at the same time, because


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its apparent external muteness it was in fact full of meaning.

And even more than that, the concept of public space achieved in the work of Daniel Libeskind is

like the opposite of what the architects of gothic cathedrals were doing when building houses for the

eternal architect of the universe, and now is being done for the living people of today.

So, two different buildings, like the arms of a scale balancing opposite meanings: in one side, the

joy, the sharing, the friendly relationship with other people, in a word, the celebration of life, as in

the other side, the serious part of life, the dark side of reality, which we could never forget, becauseit makes the balance and values the other.

- CONCLUSIONWith a technological revolution

still occurring in our days, as a

natural result from the global

changes happening, also

architecture is affected and

seems to be loosing its national

character or changing identityand becoming universal.

Everything became global and

it seems also very hard to find

something we could call as the

following correspondence to the

previous Victorian, Georgian,

Edwardian style or even British

architecture. If this is a loss, a

gain or just a change of character, thats what the times to come will probably answer.

Architecture, like anything else, seems to develop following cycles of action and reaction, and

situated at the edge of XX Century these three buildings make and mark the transition between both

centuries, in a kind of balance between past and present, carrying the sad memories from the past to

value the joy of the present and the future days we hope.

These seem to be the new ideas arising in the horizon, in terms of city planning for Manchester in

the XXI Century, and embodied in glass and metal; how the future will grow exactly we cannot

guess.for how many more centuries will we have to

live in a constant war, we dont know

But, we can hope, at least, that the architects of the

future could bring new fresh ideas to build better,

functional and beautiful buildings, but even more

than that, we hope they could still have the audacityto build our planet as a home for humanity and to

demand the right and the duty to live in peace with

each other, in a global world where our differences

doesnt separate us, but could be factors of cultural

enrichment, and where our complexity could coexist,

in a place where we could face the future without fear,

but with joy, as the children had expressed in their

paintings exhibited at the War Museum, as we know

they wish and deserve.

JOAQUIM PAZ MANCHESTER, January 2007


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Bibliography and Internet Sources:

Manchester Clare Hartwell

Manchester Architecture Guide - Eamon Caniffe,Tom Jefferies

Nouvelles Impressions dArchitecture - Daniel Libeskind

Counterdesign Daniel Libeskind

Museum Ohne Ausgang Thortsten RodiekComplexity and Contradiction Robert Venturi

The Architecture of Humanism Geoffrey Scott

Architecture as Space Bruno Zevi

The Dancing Column Esmond Reid

The Greek Revival J.Mourdant Crook

The Orders of Architecture Arthur Stratton

Lectures on Painting James Barry,Opie,Fuseli

Modern Architecture since 1990-William J.R.Curtis-Phaidon 1996

Modern Movements in Architecture-Charles Jenks- -1987

The language of Post-modern Architecture-Charles Jenks -1981

New Museum Architecture Mimi Zeiger- Tames & Hudson 2005

The story of Architecture of 20th. Century Jurgen Tietz Konemann Cologne 1999

New Architecture-The New Moderns & The Super Moderns Architecture Design London 1990

www.penninewaterways.co.uk

www.touruk.co.uk/manchester/salford.htm

www.manchester2002-uk.com

www.thelowry.com

www.nwra.gov.uk/theregion/manchester/?page_id=11

http://www.vitruvius.com.br/entrevista/eisenman/eisenman.asp

http://www.eisenmanarchitects.com/

http://north.iwm.org.uk/

http://www.michaelwilford.com/

http://www.daniel-libeskind.com/daniel/index.html

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/vforum/02/monument_memory/index.html#danielLibeskind

http://www.britischebotschaft.de/building/wilford.htm

The idea that architecture and architects give birth at one and the same time to their affirmation and their negation, and

therefore to the meaning and the contradiction of their logic, represents not only a central hypothesis of his work, but

also the dominant paradigm in the majority of recent architectural historiography. From contrast to analogy- Ignasio de

Sola Morales

in Lotus International #46-1985

The first demand on every work of art is that it constitute one whole, that is fully pronounce its

own meaning, that it tell itself, it ought to be independent- Henry Fuseli- in Lectures on Painting
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/http://www.touruk.co.uk/manchester/salford.htmhttp://www.manchester2002-uk.com/http://www.thelowry.com/http://www.nwra.gov.uk/theregion/manchester/?page_id=11http://www.vitruvius.com.br/entrevista/eisenman/eisenman.asphttp://www.eisenmanarchitects.com/http://north.iwm.org.uk/http://www.michaelwilford.com/http://www.daniel-libeskind.com/daniel/index.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/vforum/02/monument_memory/index.html#danielLibeskindhttp://www.britischebotschaft.de/building/wilford.htmhttp://www.britischebotschaft.de/building/wilford.htmhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/vforum/02/monument_memory/index.html#danielLibeskindhttp://www.daniel-libeskind.com/daniel/index.htmlhttp://www.michaelwilford.com/http://north.iwm.org.uk/http://www.eisenmanarchitects.com/http://www.vitruvius.com.br/entrevista/eisenman/eisenman.asphttp://www.nwra.gov.uk/theregion/manchester/?page_id=11http://www.thelowry.com/http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/http://www.touruk.co.uk/manchester/salford.htmhttp://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/

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The Manchester Skyline for the New Millennium