Tate Liverpool © Andrew Dunkley and Mark Heathcote
Tate Liverpool Appoint 6a Architects For Major Reimagining of Gallery
Tate Liverpool today announced 6a architects will lead the design for a major reimagining of the landmark gallery on Royal Albert Dock Liverpool. The firm won the tender to transform the renowned gallery’s spaces following an open competition which garnered applications from around the world.
The practice was chosen from a strong shortlist of Asif Khan architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Witherford Watson Mann architects and 6a architects.
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.”
6a architects was founded by Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald in 2001. The practice has gained an international reputation for its cultural and educational projects, especially in sensitive historic environments. Drawing on social histories, construction traditions, contemporary art and landscape, projects emerge firmly rooted in their place.
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. We are honoured to have the opportunity to work with Tate Liverpool to imagine how this great museum can once again offer artists and audiences a renewed experience of art reflecting the warmth and energy that this extraordinary city is known for.”
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.
Following a grant from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund, 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.
Dominic Beaumont, Communications Manager, Tate Liverpool dominic.beaumont@tate.org.uk 0151 702 7444 / 07969 592950
High-res images for Tate Liverpool are available from: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bceplis1w4c801t/AAAQDr_bh_UZGQz2s06wdQlYa?dl=0
High-res images for 6a architects are available from: https://we.tl/t-ovQvUPbErd
Funding
£10m has been awarded to Tate Liverpool from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund as part of a successful combined £20m bid with National Museums Liverpool for their waterfront projects.
Tate Liverpool
Established in 1988, Tate Liverpool helped establish a blueprint for a wave of new galleries across the UK, redefining the role of the museum in the life of a city.
Since 2019, the gallery has shown work by ground-breaking US contemporary artists Theaster Gates and Arthur Jafa and staged the first major exhibition in the UK of artist and activist Keith Haring as well as of South Korean artists Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho. More recently, Tate Liverpool responded to COVID-19 with an exhibition of portraits, created Aliza Nisenbaum, depicting NHS staff from Merseyside, unveiled the inaugural Art North West commission by Emily Speed and hosted the first UK retrospective of Glasgow-born Lucy McKenzie.
Alongside its inspiring exhibition programme, the gallery has an established reputation for delivering high quality work within the city’s communities. Projects such as Tackling the Blues, Home from Home and ground-breaking work with prison education service Novus, see Tate Liverpool engaged in a range of initiatives to support skills and promote creativity, extending its influence beyond the walls of the gallery.
6a Architects
6a architects was founded by Tom Emerson and Stephanie Macdonald in 2001. The practice has gained an international reputation for the innovative re-use of existing buildings for cultural and educational projects, especially in sensitive historical environments. It has completed several public galleries which have garnered support from critics, artists and visitors alike including Raven Row (2009), South London Gallery (2010-18) and MK Gallery in Milton Keynes (2019). Collaborations with artists, engineers and landscape designers alongside teaching and research are fundamental to 6a’s design process.
The studio has won multiple awards, notably the Schelling Medal 2012, RIBA Awards and a nomination for the Stirling Prize 2017 for its studio complex for photographer Juergen Teller (2016) for which it won the RIBA London Building of the Year Award 2017. In 2018, Stephanie Macdonald was a finalist for the International Women in Architecture Award and Tom Emerson was awarded the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Prize in Zurich. The New Year Honours 2021 saw both recognised with an OBE for Services to Architecture and Education.
6a 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, by artist Caragh Thuring 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.