International architects appointed to lead Tate Liverpool reimagining
Art gallery, Tate Liverpool, has appointed international architects, 6a, to lead a multimillion-pound reimagining of the waterfront site.
Tate Liverpool has been awarded £10m from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund as part of a successful combined £20m bid with National Museums Liverpool for their waterfront projects.
London-based 6a architects will lead the design for the scheme at the landmark gallery on Royal Albert Dock after winning the tender following an open competition which attracted applications from around the world.
The practice was chosen from a strong shortlist that included Asif Khan architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Witherford Watson Mann architects.
It is currently working on significant projects around the world. This year sees the opening of CARA, a new contemporary art foundation in New York, Holborn House, a new community building with an integral public artwork in central London, A2 B2, two office buildings for the creative industries in the Design District Greenwich and two mixed-use towers on the waterfront in Hamburg.
In 2020, Victoria State granted permission for 6a’s first building in Australia, a 13-storey mixed use, landscaped building in Collingwood, Melbourne, which will begin construction in 2022.
Helen Legg, director, Tate Liverpool, said: “I’m excited to embark on a journey with 6a to reimagine what Tate Liverpool can be and how it can best serve the needs of art, artists and our visitors into the future – 6a have an outstanding track record of reworking historic buildings, often in partnership with cultural organisations and I’m confident in their ability to deliver something very special with us in the coming years.”
Stephanie Macdonald, founding director at 6a architects, said: “We are thrilled to be appointed to design the next chapter of Tate Liverpool. Liverpool has a unique spirit – Jesse Hartley’s original Royal Albert Dock was one of the most innovative buildings of the industrial revolution.
“Sir James Stirling’s transformation in the 1980’s was a pioneer in the adaptive re-use of industrial heritage for public cultural use. Together they offer an incredible starting point from which to develop a new sustainable, social and accessible museum for the future.”
Tate Liverpool is housed in an iconic 1846 warehouse that was redesigned by Sir James Stirling and Michael Wilford in the late 1980s as the cornerstone of the reinvention of the Royal Albert Dock. It helped establish Tate as a pioneer for arts-led regeneration in the UK.
Tate will work with 6a to reimagine the gallery spaces to meet the scale and ambition of today’s most exciting artists. They will also develop social spaces that better connect with the city and its communities, creating an environment that is flexible and inviting and able to host people, art and ideas in equal measure.
