Practice submits plans six months after replacing Adjaye Associates on project
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios has unveiled its plans for a 拢57m redevelopment of the International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum in Liverpool six months after it replaced Adjaye Associates on the project.
The firm has submitted a full planning application to the local council to upgrade the two museums on the city鈥檚 grade I-listed Royal Albert Dock for National Museums Liverpool (NML).
It comes 10 months after the scheme鈥檚 former lead architect Adjaye Associates was removed from the project in the wake of a series of sexual assault allegations against practice founder David Adjaye, which he has denied.
FCBS said in the planning documents that it was 鈥渃onscious that we were building on a well-established framework鈥� when it joined the project in January this year.
鈥淲e sought to learn and understand the spirit behind decisions taken and to add another layer of professional rigour and interrogation to the process,鈥� it added.
The scheme would see the grade I-listed Martin Luther King transformed into the new entrance of the International Slavery Museum and a refurbishment of the Hartley Pavilion for the Maritime Museum. A new contemporary link bridge would also be built between the two buildings.
It is a central part of Liverpool鈥檚 Waterfront Transformation Project, which aims to create a world-class visitor experience exploring the site鈥檚 history as a port serving the Atlantic slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The plans include a new slanted entrance pavilion outside the Martin Luther King building which FCBS said has been developed from 鈥減revious investigative options鈥�.
The practice described the new entrance as a 鈥渉igh quality, poignant and significant architectural intervention on the Albert Docks,鈥� adding that it would be a 鈥渂old statement of vision for Liverpool, to face its past and to look forward.鈥�
The 鈥渙vertly generous, almost cathedral-like鈥� structure would be built from decorative cast iron panels featuring a wave-like pattern motif which is repeated throughout the design of the slavery museum.
The pattern would also be used on new balustrades in a proposed refurbishment of the building鈥檚 main atrium, replacing a set of 1980s balustrades which had reproduced the original 19th century design.
The neighbouring Maritime Museum would be fronted with a new glazed entrance vestibule under the plans with views of the building鈥檚 interior showing extensive use of timber on the roof and walls along with a new timber-panelled lecture theatre.
The proposed glazed link bridge, which would also feature the wave-pattern motif on its steel structure, is described by FCBS as a 鈥減ause-point鈥� between the two museums, which it ties together both 鈥減hysically and conceptually鈥�.
The project team also includes cost consultant Ridge & Partners, structural engineer AKTII, planning consultant The Planning Lab, sustainability consultant Atelier Ten, heritage consultant Donal Insall Associates and access consultant Buro Happold.
The new galleries have been designed by exhibition designer Ralph Appelbaum Associates.
Work on the scheme could start on site as soon as spring next year if it is granted planning permission with funding coming from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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