The redevelopment of the International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum in Liverpool, UK, has been officially approved. Led by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, the project titled "Two Museums, One Vision" aims to transform the two venues on Liverpool's waterfront into engaging and welcoming spaces that properly address contemporary issues and reveal untold histories. aims to comprehensively narrate Britain's maritime history alongside its involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. Both venues are set to close early in 2025 for the redevelopment works to begin, according to the National Museums Liverpool. The completion date is scheduled for 2028.
The International Slavery Museum is set to receive a new, more prominent entrance pavilion through the transformation of the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Building. This aims to create a more coherent identity for the museum while optimizing interior spaces for learning and community-building. An iron and glass bridge will connect the redesigned galleries of the International Slavery Museum galleries in the Hartley Pavilion to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Building, opening views of the Royal Albert Dock.
The museum is solely dedicated to the transatlantic slave trade. Striving to embody the concept of Restorative Justice, the design includes artistic expressions of co-production with community groups, encapsulating the museum's evolution and contextualizing it within Liverpool's historical and modern narrative. The ironwork façade aims to showcase the work of co-production with community groups, while the integrated balustrade offers a timeline of the story of the International Slavery Museum from its origins 30 years ago as a gallery in the basement of the Maritime Museum, to present times, when the museum is an institution in its own rights.
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David Kohn Architects and noAarchitecten Win Competition to Redesign the SMAK Museum in Ghent, BelgiumSimilarly, the Maritime Museum strives to improve its visitor welcome and orientation spaces, create better circulation flows, and enhance the commercial offering through the inclusion of a shop, café, and events spaces. Central to the project is the creation of new galleries and shared spaces that facilitate community interaction, research, and events. The project develops additional gallery spaces for both venues in addition to the inclusion of community spaces, research, and learning opportunities.
This project – like both museums within it - embodies a determination that our collective and shared history is expressed. It boldly addresses themes of restorative justice through space; which is fitting for the first museum in the world dedicated to the transatlantic slave trade. Liverpool, the UK and the world are ready for this. - Kossy Nnachetta, Partner and Architect at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
In January 2024, National Museums Liverpool appointed Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBStudios) as the team leading the architectural design of the redevelopment of both venues. The architectural studio has also worked together with key members of the University of Liverpool: School of Architecture to facilitate community conversations. In 2022, Ralph Appelbaum Associates was appointed as the leading team for the exhibition design of both museums.
In other related news, Fondation Cartier has announced plans to move out of the Jean Nouvel-designed building and into a historical structure in Paris, the renovation of which will also be undertaken by Jean Nouvel. Another historical structure housing an art gallery, Philip Johnson's Kunsthalle Bielefeld in Germany has appointed Caruso St John Architects to read the restoration process, restoring the museum's spaces while integrating its difficult history.
