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Manchester

  Manchester is the regional capital of the north west of England and the UK’s largest economic region outside London. The city was the birthplace of the industrial revolution, and today is one of Britain's most lively and dynamic cities. The story of modern cities began here in Manchester 200 years ago. In only 30 years time, Manchester had transformed from a small market town into a centre of manufacture and trade. This energetic and inventive metropolis produced powerful political thinking and new ways of understanding the world.

  Today, Manchester is experiencing an urban renaissance and attempting to clean up its city centers and prepare itself for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The picture on the top left ( www.manchester.com) is one example of the innovation displaying a spiralling walkway connecting to the largest Marks & Spencer in the world. The photo of Exchange Square (above right) illustrates the revitalization of its urban plazas. This space designed by American landscape architect Martha Schwartz was intended to blend ideas of art, culture, and landscape while challenging traditional concepts of landscape design.

  The walkway pictured above displays a stream of granite blocks representing one of Manchester's medieval land features Hanging Ditch. This feature was once a 450 metre long curved ditch, which has completely disappeared beneath the roads and buildings of the city. Another water feature (above right) shows an ornamental water rill emptying into a pool of fountains outside of Urbis (pictures below).

The visually striking facades of Urbis are unlike any other museum. This interactive journey opens its visitor's eyes to the world as it explores life in different cities around the globe. Its only fitting that this type of museum was created in Manchester that also saw the worlds first organized working class, free trade, trades unions, the labour party, women's voting and the campaign for free press.

It rained during our entire visit to Manchester explaining my new knowledge of the city thanks to the Urbis interactive museum.

Adam Ravestein

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