5. Proposal for the South Dry Dock Access © Asif Khan Studio
Co-Producing a New Waterfront
It is in this setting that the Waterfront Transformation project is making its intervention, aiming to involve and include communities excluded from such processes in the past. The project is one of the largest attempts to reimagine the city’ s public spaces in living memory, and is significant as it is not primarily concerned with regeneration as a means of improving the economy of the city( although this is obviously an important corollary). The project also sits within a wider context of contentious urban planning decisions within the city in recent years- until 2021, the waterfront in and around the city centre was one of the core areas of the wider UNESCO World Heritage site of‘ Liverpool- Maritime Mercantile City’. Wider urban redevelopment projects along the waterfront extending beyond the city centre – described as‘ vandalism’ in a major national newspaper 3- saw the inscription being removed in 2021.
The remit of the Transformation Project, which was launched with a public competition in 2021, 4 included re-orienting the interiors of ISM and MM to improve the accessibility and interpretation spaces of the
3 https:// www. theguardian. com / artanddesign / 2021 / jul / 21 / liverpool-unesco-world-heritage-status-stripped? ref = livpost. co. uk
4 https:// www. placenorthwest. co. uk / design-contest-to-breathe-new-life-into-liverpool-waterfront /
EUROPE INSIGHT
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