Architectural competitions can be exciting affairs, particularly when they’re accompanied by exhibitions that actively invite public comment and participation. They feature proposals for imagined futures, and the magic lies in the possibility that the potential buildings might become real – and we, as viewers, get the chance to have our say. Dinky little wooden models take on giant dimensions in our minds; slick CGI renders act as templates to be laid over reality; video presentations and expensively bound brochures tempt us into casting our vote in what can seem like an architectural ‘X Factor’ showdown.
All too often though, the thrill evaporates when we realise the buildings we’ve already begun constructing in our minds will probably never appear. Most ground-breaking schemes never actually do break ground; the number of funding bodies and interested parties who need to synchronise their thinking is so great, that more often than not, the whole project collapses and the projected buildings and structures remain might-have-beens that never leave the drawing board.
This is exactly what happened to Liverpool’s so-called ‘Fourth Grace’ project. It was to be a brand new iconic landmark on the city’s waterfront, adjacent to the famous ‘Three Graces’ of the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port Authority Building. Four ‘starchitects’ fought it out for the privilege of developing the site: Sir Richard Rogers, Sir Norman Foster, Edward Cullinan and Will Alsop. I was one of the thousands who attended the exhibition in which all four displayed their improbable dreams for this difficult site; I was won over by the sheer craziness of Will Alsop’s ‘Cloud’ design, but not many other people were. And when the competition organisers announced that this was the winning project, it already felt as though the writing was on the wall. Because in the face of public hatred – and sudden uncertainty about what the building was actually meant to be for – the Cloud simply drifted away. The project was abandoned in 2004.
Cynics might say that the Fourth Grace contest had always been an imaginary competition – a publicity driver rather than an actual search for Liverpool’s new 21st century landmark. And it was this frustrating charade that went through my mind as I visited another architectural exhibition in the city – though this time, the imaginary qualities were made explicit right at the start.
‘Jelly Mould Pavilions’ at the Sudley House museum in Liverpool’s southern suburbs – and other venues dotted throughout the city – pretends to be a search for a new city monument, a memorial to the African diaspora and its contribution to Liverpool’s history. It claims to be a competition; on a central table are arranged a selection of Victorian jelly moulds, each one decorated, apparently, by a different African artist in recognition of the city’s connections to that continent. Their hope, allegedly, is that their design will be chosen, becoming a giant-sized jelly mould monument somewhere on Liverpool’s streets. It’s a crazy idea of course – though surely no more crackpot than the Angel of the North once seemed.
In reality, there is no competition; and in fact, all the designs are by one artist – Lubaina Himid. However, as you peer closely at the jelly moulds, you can’t help but begin to imagine them as they might appear if they really were to be built as big as a house. Each model is accompanied by tiny toy human figures to better communicate the sense of imagined scale, and on the wall there are maps and schematics that give the impression that potential sites really are being considered. Outside Lime Street station or down by the Albert Dock? Where would you like to see a gigantic jelly mould, and how quickly might it become just part of the landscape?
The objects are quite beautiful in themselves, but the real fascination for me lies in their role as containers for an idea: an architectural competition that never was; a monument that will never be.
By the time I left, I really did wish it was for real.
‘Jelly Mould Pavilions’ runs at Sudley House and other Liverpool venues until June 6th 2010.
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