Imperial War Museum North, Manchester, M17

Across the water from Media City UK, is this striking building.

IWM North, sketched from Media City UK in Sketchbook 15

This is “IWM North“. I enjoyed the way the vast curves of the building were echoed in the humble shape of the deckchairs.

The architect is Daniel Libeskind. It was his first UK building, constructed in 2002. It represents a shattered globe: it’s been put back together, but it will never be the same again.

From the IWM North website

Here is work in progress on the sketch, the view across the water:

The marvellous curves of Media City UK

On the radio many years ago, I heard a director of the Imperial War Museum say that he was director of an establishment whose name contained three words each with negative connotations: “Imperial” “War” and “Museum”.
I note with interest, therefore, that it is now branded “IWM”.
“Imperial War Museums” has 5 sites: IWM London (in Lambeth), HMS Belfast on the Thames, the aircraft museum in Duxford, The Churchill War Rooms in Whitehall, and this one, the IWM North.

Sketchbook 15

Tragedy, for me, is not a conflict between right and wrong, but between two different kinds of right.

Peter Shaffer, playwright.