The Imperial War Museum North is a war museum in Trafford Park in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. Opened on 5 July 2002, it is one of five branches of the Imperial War Museum, and the first outside the southeast of England. The building is an example of Deconstructivist Architecture, designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. Construction cost £28 million, and was carried out by Sir Robert McAlpine, with engineering by Arup. The building has a highly complex geometry with sloping floors and ceilings and few perpendicular surfaces, designed to induce disorientation reminiscent of that caused by war. The large tower is known as the air shard, and has a viewing/observation platform at the top, accessed by a lift, with a good view of The Lowry and Salford Quays.
The museum features an exhibit called The Big Picture; once an hour, the lights in the main exhibition hall are lowered, photographs and quotations from scenes of war are projected onto all of the walls, and recordings of events echo around the hall. This exhibit enhances the unnerving feeling the museum is designed to create.
Admission is free and the museum is open between 10:00 am and 6:00 pm (10:00 am and 5:00 pm between November and February) daily.
The museum won the 2003 British Construction Industry Building Award, and the title of Large Visitor Attraction of the Year at the 2006 Manchester Tourism Awards.
