The Architects' Journal
Published 24 July 2006 at 11:52
Office of Subversive Architects lands first
‘Serpentine Pavilion of the north’
A new arts centre in Liverpool has commissioned the international
collective of young architects, the Office for Subversive Architecture,
to design this temporary structure.
The new organisation, called Greenland Street, hopes the threemonth
installation will become a tradition – with different architects
being asked to work on the same site each year.
It has been compared to the Serpentine Pavilion, which appears in
Hyde Park every summer.
The initiative’s backer, the A Foundation, hopes that annual
development will form a key backbone to the 2008 Capital of
Culture celebrations.
The commission for the roof of ‘The Blade Factory’, a 709m space
that is part of the new arts centre, will take place every September,
with the structure on site for three months.
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The arts centre, which opens in September, has seen two massive
warehouses redeveloped for their new function by local up-andcoming
practice Union North.
It will be a major new venue for the exhibition of large-scale modern
art. The first installation, planned for September, will be by Goshka
Macuga, working with If-Untitled Architects, and will be called The
Furnace.
In autumn 2006, talks and discussions organised by Greenland
Street will be housed within OSA’s structure and look at the
relationship between art and architecture. Speakers include artists
and architects Nils Norman, Public Works, Nathan Coley and MUF.
by Ed Dorrell