This week sees the arrival of the long-awaited Aviva Studios - a major new arts and performance space built on the former Granada Studios site.
First announced in 2014, the building, originally known as Factory International, will host a year-round programme of dance, theatre, music, visual and performance art. It's the UK's biggest cultural investment since the capital's Tate Modern.
This reluctance to rock the boat, push the envelope or make any sort of visual statement is perhaps symptomatic of wider issues facing 21st century city planning and building design, but this is Manchester – aren’t we supposed to do things differently here? As one of the most visually unique buildings in the city, it resembles very little else in the immediate or wider vicinities, it fulfils the ‘do things different’ quota with a complex, angular and abstract take on Manchester's industrial past.
In the context of its architectural identity Aviva Studios is big, bold and brave, but as the largest investment by the government in a single arts project since the Tate Modern, this was a minimum requirement. Described as 'joyless', 'muted' and 'underwhelming' by a number of commentators, the building itself has notably undergone a series of dramatic changes from the initial published renderings.
Viewed head on, OMA’s abstract design almost resembles a twisted, stretched-out factory with its corrugated steel façade and raw concrete base – caught in flux between the proud industrial past that surrounds it and the ambitious future it intends to usher in; one that positions Manchester as a rival to London and other international headline cities for cultural impact and draw.
Under its original name, Factory International would have been the direct continuation of an established cultural legacy, a homage to the Factory Records label that has for so long dominated the Mancunian cultural identity, and likewise the industrial landscape of Manchester that produced its ideals and values.
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