Face of Liverpool
NAME : Face of Liverpool DATE : 2006 CLIENT : Beetham Organization LOCATION : Liverpool PARTNERS : BCA Landscape, Smiling Wolf PHOTOGRAPHER : Guy Woodland PARTNERS : Eves Joinery
Aim
Artists and designers from BCA, Broadbent and Smiling Wolf worked closely to create an integrated art and architecture solution, on a site at the threshold of national and international trade connections.
Concept
Subtle intersecting lines, etched, cast, blasted and illuminated, within walls and floorscape, link glass discs that identify Liverpool’s exports and portray Liverpool ‘faces’ of the world.
A curved wall with the inscription, in morse code, ‘ Permission to Come Alongside’, greets travellers along King Edward Street, and helps to frame another unique space ‘The Tower Plaza’. Sheltered from the heavy traffic this becomes another livable space with unique sculptural seating and feature lighting.
Set within the garden walls are illuminated glass portholes, portraying contemporary faces of local people. The 32 faces represent, in some part, Liverpool’s diverse gene pool, pioneers, traders, travellers, migrant people, throughout history from all over the world, that have made Liverpool their home.
GLASS
“Part urban landscape, part public artwork, the £1.4m project includes ‘Face of Liverpool’ – a wonderful installation that gave Liverpool residents the chance to have their portrait set into the scheme’s structure and help celebrate the city’s rich ethnic and cultural diversity.”
“Building on the sites international links the team encouraged input from people who’s family had travelled from other parts of the world and made Liverpool their home – pioneers, traders, travellers and migrant people that continue to help define Liverpool’s diverse gene pool. Their faces and details have been etched in coloured glass within the walls of the finished scheme and their full fascinating stories told in a hardback book – ‘Connections’.”
Permission to Come Alongside
