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.
Churchill War Rooms Located beneath the HM Treasury building in the Whitehall area of Westminster, the original bunker facilities became operational in 1939 and were in constant use until the surrender of the Japanese forces. The doors were locked on 16 August 1945 and the complex was left undisturbed until the UK Parliament ensured its preservation as a historic site in 1948. IWM agreed to take over the administration of the site in 1982 and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opened the ‘Cabinet War Rooms’ in April 1984. In 2003 a further suite of rooms, used as accommodation by Churchill, his wife and close associates, were added to the museum. In 2005, the War Rooms were rebranded as the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum. From an estate perspective, the structure is an exceptionally strong reinforced concrete bunker set over three levels: ground level, basement, sub-basement. The ground level is mainly used for IWM staff facilities and the visitor reception area, with the main museum housed at the basement level. The sub-basement is not open to the public and houses critical mechanical and electrical infrastructure for the safe occupation and use of the facilities. Particularly, fire safety and an ability to safely evacuate is of critical importance to IWM.
Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software