Office For Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has announced that new flagship cultural venue for the North gets planning approval by the City Council. A giant-colonnaded Manchester Factory is the first major public building of OMA in the UK, which is led by project partners Ellen van Loon and Rem Koolhaas.

OMA's Factory will be a groundbreaking new venue driven by the extraordinary creative vision and breadth of Manchester’s cultural life. It will form part of the vibrant new St. John's neighbourhood, which is being developed by Allied London, in partnership with Manchester City Council, on the site of the former Granada TV Studios.

Areal view at site

The new public building will be operated by Manchester International Festival (MIF) and will continue to deliver the festival every two years within its programme. The new venue will offer audiences the opportunity to enjoy year round, in a new world-class facility, the broadest range of art forms and cultural experiences - including dance, theatre, music, opera, visual arts, spoken word, popular culture and innovative contemporary work incorporating multiple media and technologies. Artists from across the world will be invited to create new work in the building’s extraordinary spaces.

''Much of my professional life has been spent undoing limitations of the traditional typologies. From classical opera and ballet to large scale performances and experimental productions, Factory in Manchester provides the perfect opportunity to create the ultimate versatile space in which art, theatre and music come together: a platform for a new cultural scene,'' says Ellen van Loon, partner in charge of the project.

Factory is intended to accelerate economic growth in the region. Its economic impact will be considerable creating or supporting almost 1,500 full-time jobs and adding £1.1 billion to the city’s economy over a decade. 

The building will make a direct contribution to the growth of creative industries in the North, and reduce the dependency on London as the provider of creative industries training and employment. It will develop partnerships with the city’s leading higher education institutions and will further support the city’s drive for high calibre graduate talent retention through job creation.

''I want to blast open access to the very best world-class art and culture we have to offer in this country. So we're investing £78 million into Factory in Manchester that will provide a further boost to the brilliant arts, culture and technology scene in the North. On top of that, it will also help local tourism, generate jobs and provide training opportunities for the next generation of British creatives,'' says The Rt Hon Matt Hancock, Minister of State for Digital & Culture.

''This is a great show of confidence in the cultural future of the North. In just five festivals Manchester International Festival has established itself as one of the major international arts festivals, and we are delighted to now be able to add to the city’s and the country’s cultural offer all year round through our programming at Factory,'' added Tom Bloxham, Chairman, Manchester International Festival (MIF).

All images © OMA, courtesy of Factory Manchester

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