Architects announced for Canning Dock transformation by National Museums Liverpool

Today, National Museums Liverpool (NML) has announced a collaboration between architects Asif Khan Studio, Sir David Adjaye OBE, Mariam Kamara and artist Theaster Gates as the winning team of the Waterfront Transformation Project: Canning Dock competition.

Shortlisted from an extremely impressive entry of six teams that included Arup, BIG, DSDHA, OMMX and Shedkm, the winning team also includes Plan A Consultants, Prior + Partners, The Place Bureau, Hara Design Institute, AKTII, ARUP and Donald Insall Associates. Together they will now take forward the transformation of the Canning Dock Project – a public space that has an incredibly unique history, embedded with a rich and powerful heritage linked to the very roots of Liverpool’s port.

This landmark project will transform the area between the Royal Albert Dock and Mann Island, as well as revitalising all our waterfront facilities, as part of National Museums Liverpool’s (NML) 10-year masterplan of reimagining Liverpool’s waterfront. The starting point and highlight of this transformation will be the redevelopment of the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Building which will be at the very heart of the reinvigorated International Slavery Museum, which recently received £9.9m funding from The National Heritage Lottery Fund. A dramatic new front door will lead to spaces to explore and investigate the transatlantic slave trade and legacies.

The Canning Dock competition, managed by Colander Associates, is supported by £120,000 of funding from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA), as part of their Race Equality Programme. Taking in key landmarks, including the creation of pedestrian links to the Canning Dock, and bringing life to multiple buildings within the area, the brief for the project drew on the complexities of the site. A primary focus of the transformation is to respond to the waterfront’s unique history – looking at ways to bring the history of the transatlantic slave trade more into the public realm through compelling yet sensitive designs – and ensuring Liverpool’s Black communities are engaged and represented throughout.

The collaboration between Khan, Adjaye, Kamara and Gates was the unanimous choice for the judging panel, which included local representatives as well as industry experts. Chaired by Paul Monaghan, Liverpool City Region, Design Champion and Founder of AHMM, the panellists were hugely inspired by the high quality of all the entries and the passion and expertise of the winning team, which exemplified the best of amalgamating history, design, and innovation. Creating a unique destination that links storytelling, heritage, community, connectivity and commercial activity, the jurors were impressed by their ambitions defining the change that will establish the waterfront as a place for all, and intriguing new visitor journeys.

Mairi Johnson, Director of Major Projects comments:

“Congratulations to the winning team! We had six fantastic teams apply for the competition and we knew it would be a difficult choice for the jurors to decide. We’re thrilled and hugely impressed and inspired by their innovating, sensitive and powerful thinking in delivering this transformation.

The waterfront transformation is a huge opportunity for National Museums Liverpool to now work with the team and Liverpool’s communities to reimagine the full potential of Canning Dock. We’re very much looking forward to the collaboration process and the result.”

Canning Dock
Picture – Gareth Jones

Drawing upon their collective knowledge, the blockbuster design team – which includes both international and nationally recognised organisations and individuals – will work with NML, stakeholders, communities, the public and wider design team to ensure that the vision for the new waterfront is explored and delivered with a collaborative, open and accountable approach. From building benches to bridges, the team will synthesise opportunities and constraints, and begin to develop scenarios that test ideas and approaches. Consultations and workshops will be facilitated by their community programming group which includes 20 Stories High, Writing on the Wall and Squash Liverpool and through this method, the team will determine the best way to successfully animate the visitor experience on the waterfront.

Asif Khan MBE said:

“History is like the ocean, with all its depths and treachery. Looking out from the shore, those waters feel like they belong to us, and yet the sea looks so different from where you stand in the world. History can wash things away one day and brings them back like ghost ships the next. Reconciling with history is how we grow as individuals, as communities, and – we believe – is what makes life and cities beautiful.

For National Museums Liverpool we have formed a different kind of design team – not simply to deliver a project, but to steward a significantly meaningful one into being. This new piece of history will welcome voices from across Liverpool and globally from the places and people connected with Canning Dock.”

Sir David Adjaye OBE:

“Our collaborative team composed of technical architects, planetary architects and an artist envisions the NML Waterfront Transformation as an opportunity to powerfully reformulate the history of Liverpool through re-invigorating the diverse social, civic and environmental context of the city. Recognising the history of the surrounding waterfront, connecting the region’s cultural infrastructure, and creating a space in which the public realm and public arts can connect, holds the potential to create a distinct, engaging, and empowering identity for the community to grow with and in.”

Mariam Kamara:

“The Canning Dock transformation is a chance to explore the power of architecture as a storytelling tool to bridge the gaps in knowledge that exist about the history of Liverpool as well as this significant site. The NML Waterfront Transformation is an opportunity to pull on the threads that make up the history of the transatlantic slave trade – from Africa, across the Atlantic to the US and back to Liverpool – to bridge gaps, to exhume memories and ultimately bring to the fore an exciting space for the public to explore and engage with the history of Liverpool while firmly facing towards the future.”

Theaster Gates:

“Commemoration and memorial making are some of the most important acts a nation can be involved in – especially commemoration around racial complexity and social ill. Canning Dock represents one of the most important racialised sites in the UK and it gives me tremendous honour to work with this team to realise the complexity of the site. We hope that by using the tools of monument making and memorialising and commemoration, we will be able to do what many have not been able to do, which is to give emotional heft to the truth of slavery in the UK historically and the possibility for a site of re-emotionalising, healing, and processing those complexities. This will not be an easy journey, but we take the task with great humility and seriousness.”

In response to the brief, the winning team will be focusing on the public realm (including a public art strategy), new bridges spanning from the Pump House to Mann Island, transformation of the two dry docks into an educational and cultural experience, and animation of the water. The team identified in their submission that reconnection and accessible recreational routes will play a critical part in the development. Recognising the different flows of people drawn from the city including the creative, cultural, knowledge, retail, and commercial quarters have all informed their response at site level. A site that was once used in the 18th century for fitting out, cleaning, and repairing ships, including those used in the transatlantic slave trade, needs to be approached with sensitivity – linking the past with the present. The team presented ideas and creative solutions that will build upon the significance of the area through a thoughtful and engaging response to both the history of the site and its future potential.

This timely transformation is not just for Liverpool, but for the whole of the UK. NML will work collaboratively with the design team to build on strengths, respond to challenges and opportunities and be a catalyst for social improvements and creating space for people and communities. This project allows the space to redefine its identity beyond its core role as NML’s arrival gateway, and something that befits its many visitors.

The Design Competition was made possible by funding from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. NML are working to secure funds to realise the project. This includes a bid that was submitted by Liverpool City Council to the Government’s Levelling Up Fund to which the outcome will be announced this Autumn.