IWM North IWM North, located in Trafford, Manchester, was opened in 2002. It was the first branch of the museum outside southeast England, and the first to be purpose-built as a museum. The visually striking building, overlooking the Manchester Ship Canal at Salford Quays, was based on the concept of a globe shattered by conflict into shards and reassembled. These shards, representing earth, air and water, give the building its shape. The building essentially comprises an aluminium clad, steel and concrete framed building, with concrete floors and stairs covering four levels. The vertical feature referred to as the ‘Air Shard’ is of tubular steel framing faced with aluminium cladding. Internally, besides corporate, staff and visitor facilities, the museum’s first floor main gallery space houses permanent exhibitions, with the walls used as screens for the projection of an hourly audiovisual presentation. The museum also hosts a programme of temporary exhibitions, mounted in the special exhibition gallery. As a relatively new part of the IWM estate, the building benefits from more recent design and engineering. However, many major components and systems are approaching their end of lifecycle.
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