TITANIC BELFAST Project spotlight
We shine a light on two newly opened public buildings – the Titanic Belfast and the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art. The Titanic Belfast has been constructed specially to house a museum commemorating its namesake ship and its stunningly brave architecture reflects this function – also paying tribute to the ill-fated ship. Located just yards from where RMS Titanic was built and launched, the 97million visitor centre is the highlight of a £7billion project to regenerate the area and it’s hoped the iconic design and interactive experience housed within, will attract thousands of visitors to Northern Ireland annually. Whilst the Titanic Belfast marks 100 years since the legendary ship sank, the Stedelijk Museum project also marks a centenary. Having opened its doors as a cutting-edge showcase of modern art 100 years ago, the Neo-Renaissance style museum was in dire need of modernisation. Here, we explore the story behind the contrasting, new, bathtub- shaped exhibition space that has been created alongside this regeneration project.
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A TITANIC UNDERTAKING
PROJECT: Titanic Belfast CLIENT: Titanic Foundation Ltd LOCATION: Belfast, Northern Ireland
PROJECT ARCHITECTS: CivicArts/Eric Kuhne Associates, Todd Architects and Kay Elliott COMPLETION DATE: March 2012 GROSS AREA: 150,700sqft COST: £97million
One hundred years after the world’s most famous ship – the RMS Titanic sank to the seabed on its maiden voyage – a dedicated museum, the Titanic Belfast has opened to the public. Located just 100 yards from where
Titanic was launched and the drawing office where naval architect Thomas Andrews sketched the ship’s classic lines, the £97million building is set to become a major new tourist attraction for Northern Ireland. It is also the centrepiece of the £7billion Titanic Quarter development - one of Europe’s largest urban waterfront regeneration schemes, which is turning a 185–acre site on the banks of Belfast’s River Lagan into a new mixed-use maritime quarter with a mile of water frontage. Designed by renowned experts in conceptualising public buildings CivicArts/Eric Kuhne Associates, Todd Architects and Kay Elliott, the stunningly brave architecture is a tribute to the Titanic itself. The museum’s volume resembles four 90ft high hulls and is clad in 3,000 three- dimensional silver anodised aluminum shards, in a pattern that recalls the construction methods of the great ocean liners of a century ago. Specialist façade contractors Metallbau Frueh were enlisted to design the folded aluminium panels that are arranged into a complex asymmetrical design, fracturing the reflected light into a series of abstracted waves and breakers. Inside Titanic Belfast’s six floors feature
Clad in 3,000 three-dimensional silver anodised aluminum shards, the building’s skin fractures and reflects the light like waves and breakers.
26 | Architects Choice |
ArchitectNews.co.uk
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