Factory International is a cultural space currently being built in Manchester, UK, which is to be the permanent home of the

Manchester International Festival The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester and run by Factory International. The festival is a biennial event, first taking ...

. It is designed by the international practice Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), founded by

Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a re ...

and will be their first major, permanent cultural building in the UK. Factory International's internal spaces cover approximately 13,300 square meters, with adaptability designed to enable the commissioning of large scale and intimate work across different art forms, including dance, theatre, music, opera, visual arts, popular culture and digital work, plus major exhibitions and concerts. Work commissioned for Factory International will go on to be presented internationally, whilst

will continue to take place every two years.

History

Plans to build Factory International were announced in December 2014 by then Chancellor,

George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...

, who pledged a £78 million investment as part of the

Northern Powerhouse The Northern Powerhouse is a proposal to boost economic growth in the North of England by the 2010–15 coalition government and 2015–2016 Conservative government in the United Kingdom, particularly in the "Core Cities" of Hull, Manchester ...

programme. Factory International was backed by Manchester City Council, which stated that the venue would "play an integral part in helping Manchester and the north of England provide a genuine cultural counterbalance to London". The Government announced that, from 1 April 2018, they will provide Arts Council England (ACE) with an additional £9 million per annum to offer revenue support to Factory.Pdf.
Manchester City Council granted planning permission for the building in January 2017, announcing at the same time that Manchester International Festival will operate the centre with Mark Ball, the former artistic director of the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT).

Location

Factory International is being constructed on the former site of

Granada Studios Old Granada Studios (known simply as Granada Studios and previously known as The Manchester Studios) is a television studio complex and events venue on Quay Street in Manchester with the facility to broadcast live and recorded television programm ...

, where

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

and other TV shows were filmed and is located within St John's, a "new cultural community for Manchester" being developed by

Allied London Allied London is a property development and investment company that develops landmark projects ranging from re-use to regeneration developments across retail, commercial, office, residential, restaurant, and leisure sectors. The company also offe ...

, which purchased the site with Manchester City Council. Factory International's development coincides with that of the adjacent Science and Industry Museum, which "will become part of the creative public realm, with MSI's creative science ... balancing the creative and cultural production of Factory." SIM are building a new £6 million Special Exhibition Gallery alongside Factory International; the new gallery is set to be complete by 2020. Factory International is situated next to the

River Irwell The River Irwell ( ) is a tributary of the River Mersey in north west England. It rises at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup and flows southwards for to meet the Mersey near Irlam. The Irwell marks the boundary be ...

and is close to other city centre cultural sites, including the

People's History Museum The People's History Museum (the National Museum of Labour History until 2001) in Manchester, England, is the UK's national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of working people i ...

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a late-Victorian neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded by Enriquet ...

, the Opera House,

HOME A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

and the

Royal Exchange Theatre The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal ...

Design

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) was selected to design Factory International following an international competition. Factory International covers , and will comprise three main internal spaces: the ground floor, warehouse and auditorium, with further spaces inside and outside of the building. The warehouse will have a capacity of up to 5,000 and the auditorium up to 1,600 seated. The warehouse and auditorium can present events simultaneously, and the warehouse will also have the ability to be divided into two spaces by an acoustic wall. Both spaces can also be combined to create and present different types and scales of events.Pdf.
/ref> Two public squares on the north and west sides of the building also make up the Factory International site and the scheme includes the restoration and reuse of the northern brick arched portion of the

Grade II-listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Colonnaded Railway Viaduct.

Programming

Manchester International Festival will occupy and run Factory International, creating a year-round programme that builds on the art that it commissions and presents for the 18-day festival, which takes place every two years. Like Manchester International Festival, Factory International programme will focus on premieres of new work by creators and artists developed in partnership with other festivals, producers and organisations. Similar to MIF, much of the work created will go on to be presented around the world. The programme will include around ten large scale commissions each year, as well as major exhibitions and up to 80 live music events. It will also receive productions from around the world and host events in its outdoor public squares. Factory International will run a year-round Creative Engagement programme, building on MIF's existing programme of work, which gives opportunities for people from different backgrounds and ages from across Manchester to volunteer, perform in festival events, participate in creative activities, learn new skills and showcase their work. Factory International will work with and within local communities across Greater Manchester involving them as artistic collaborators in participatory projects and productions shaped by them. MIF will continue to take place every two years, bringing new work to venues and found spaces across Greater Manchester, working with the region's cultural organisations.

Pre-Factory Events

In the run up to Factory International, MIF is commissioning and presenting a series of artists and events. Pre-Factory commissions have included Akram Khan’s Giselle;

Thomas Ostermeier Thomas Ostermeier (born 3 September 1968, Soltau, West Germany) is a German theatre director. He currently mainly works for the Schaubühne. Biography Ostermeier began his theatrical career in 1990 acting under director Einar Schleef, one of his ...

’s Returning to Reims; Available Light by composer

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

, choreographer

Lucinda Childs Lucinda Childs (born June 26, 1940) is an American postmodern dancer/ choreographer and actress. Her compositions are known for their minimalistic movements yet complex transitions. Childs is most famous for being able to turn the slightest mov ...

and architect

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considered ...

; Everything that happened and would happen by German composer and artist

Heiner Goebbels Heiner Goebbels (born 17 August 1952) is a German composer, conductor and professor at Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen and artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts Ruhrtriennale 2012–14. His composition ''Stifters Dinge ...

; Special Edition, a series of musical offerings presented with The Warehouse Project; Invisible Cities, a co-commission between MIF,

59 Productions 59 Productions is a Scottish design studio and production company that creates original story-telling experiences for audiences of all kinds. The offices of the company are located in London and New York City. Origins 59 Productions was fou ...

and

Rambert Rambert is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Ángel Rambert (1936–1983), Argentine-born French footballer *Eugène Rambert (1830–1886), Swiss author and poet *Marie Rambert (1888–1982), Polish-born dancer and pedagogue *Pas ...

;

Ivo Van Hove Ivo van Hove (born 28 October 1958) is a Belgian theatre director known as the artistic director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam in the Netherlands and for his Off-Broadway avant-garde experimental theatre productions. On Broadway, he has directed re ...

’s The Fountainhead;

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (born 1967 in Mexico City) is a Mexican-Canadian electronic artist who works with ideas from architecture, technological theater and performance. Lozano-Hemmer lives and works in Montreal and Madrid. Biography Rafael Lozan ...

’s Atmospheric Memory; and To The Moon by

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

Virtual Factory

In July 2020, MIF launched Virtual Factory, a series of online commissions by leading international artists, inspired by Factory International, its architecture and the history of the site. The first commission was Your Progress Will Be Saved, by the artist avatar

LaTurbo Avedon LaTurbo Avedon is an avatar (computing), avatar artist, curator, the designer and founder of Panther Modern. Their work emphasizes the practice of nonphysical identity and authorship since 2008–2009. They have explored the growing relationship be ...

, in which Factory International was built in the global gaming platform

Fortnite Creative ''Fortnite Creative'' is a sandbox game, developed and published by Epic Games, part of the video game ''Fortnite''. It was released on December 6, 2018 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iOS, Nintendo Switch, and Android. ...

. Future artists include Jenn Nkiru,

Tai Shani Tai Shani (born 1976) is a British artist. Shani uses performance, film, photography, sculptural installations and experimental texts to explore forgotten histories and stories. She is currently a Tutor in Contemporary Art Practice at the Roya ...

and

Robert Yang Robert Yang () is an academic, artist, and indie video game developer, whose work often explores gay subculture and the boundary between video games and art. His work focuses particularly on sociologically deviant and sometimes illegal sexual be ...

Opening Programme

In September 2023 Factory International announced their opening programme. It include
Free Your Mind
an immersive Matrix films-themed dance, music and visual effects experience directed by

Danny Boyle Daniel Francis Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English director and producer. He is known for his work on films including ''Shallow Grave'', '' Trainspotting'' and its sequel ''T2 Trainspotting'', '' The Beach'', '' 28 Days Later'', '' Su ...

You Me and the Balloons
the world's biggest ever show by

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation, and is also active in painting, performance, video art, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts. Her work is based in conceptual art and shows some attributes ...

, and The Welcome, a series of special events and performances curated by the people of Greater Manchester.

Training and employment

Factory International delivers a skills, engagement and training programme under the banner the Factory Academy. Over the next five years it is expected to create up to 1,400 fully funded skills and training places, particularly targeted at young people, providing an entry point to work in the creative industries, and reach up to 10,000 young people in the region through further learning and engagement opportunities. Factory International is anticipated to bring 1,500 full time jobs and add up to £1.1 billion to Manchester's economy over a decade. It will also offer a skills, training and engagement programme for people living across Greater Manchester. The Factory Academy is backed by the Greater Manchester Cultural Skills Consortium. Since launching in 2018, the Factory Academy has delivered several projects. In January 2019 seven local people who were not in education or employment completed a seven-month traineeship with Manchester International Festival in roles such as IT, Digital, Production, Ticketing and Development. In January 2020, five young people were employed as Creative Venue Technician apprentices with Consortium members.

People's Forum and Young People's Forum

In early 2019 MIF launched the People's Forum, a group that meets regularly to help inform the development of MIF and Factory International. The group is made up of 15 members from across Greater Manchester, who were selected following an open call. A Young People's Forum (YPF) has been running since early 2018, providing perspectives on youth culture and issues in Manchester. The council also announced that an application for a new charity, The Factory Trust, to be chaired by Sir Howard Bernstein has been made to the Charities Commission. The council state that, "once the trust has charitable status, it will begin a programme of applications to Trusts and Foundations alongside approaches to individuals and corporations."

Timescale

The timeframe of the project contains the following key milestones: * July 2015 – issue of the contract for design services * Mid-November 2015 – design team appointments point 5.0
Pdf.
/ref> * January 2017 – planning application submission * February 2017 to December 2022 – construction * Winter 2022 – MIF take ownership of Factory International * June 2023 – opening

References

Notes

: The original timeline was as follows: :* May 2016 – planning application submission :* January 2017 to December 2018 – construction :* January 2019 to June 2019 – commissioning of facilities and test events :* July 2019 – opening ceremony : The revised timeline was as follows: :* End of 2019 – opening ceremony ;Reference to Note 1 * point 5.0
Pdf.
;Reference to Note 2 *
Pdf.

External links

The Factory

Developer's website

The Factory on OMA's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Factory International Buildings and structures in Manchester Culture in Manchester Music venues in Manchester Performance art venues Planned developments Redevelopment projects in the United Kingdom Theatres in Manchester Tourist attractions in Manchester