Imperial War North Museum

The Imperial War Museum North is part of the Imperial Musée of the War located at Trafford, in the agglomeration of Manchester, in England. Opened the July 5th 2002, it was conceived by the architect Daniel Libeskind and was worked at a cost of 28 million books by Sir Robert McAlpine. The building has a rather complex geometry, with tilted grounds and ceilings and few surfaces crossing with right angle, to create a confusion réminiscente that caused by the war. The tower is known under the name of the “glare of English air” (: Air Shard ) and has a platform of observation with its top, accessible by an elevator, with a good sight on the pedestrian bridge Lowry (of the same architect) and the Salford quays.

The museum has an exposure called The Big Picture (in French: “the Great Image”); at each hour, the lights of the principal hall of exposure are filtered, and of the photographs and the quotations of the war are projected on all the walls, and of sound recordings of events resound in the hall. This exposure reinforces the feeling that this museum is made to create.

The entry is free and the museum is open the every day of 10:00 to 17:00.

The Imperial War Museum North gained in 2003 the price of the British Construction Industry Building , and titrates it greater attraction of the year to the edition 2006 of the price of tourism of Manchester.

It is quoted like an example of architecture deconstructivist.

Architectural concept

The concept of Libeskind for this museum was a sphere, burst by the conflict and reassembled on the site. Three elements of the building: the tower air shard (glare of air), the earth shard (ground glare) and the toilets shard (water glare) represent the arenas where the conflict proceeded.

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