Maritime Knowledge Hub

Description

This £23m industry-led, education, research and development, skills and innovation commercial centre of excellence will once again place the Liverpool City Region (LCR) at the heart of the maritime and marine industries.

Built around the iconic Grade II listed Hydraulic Tower, modelled on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, the Maritime Knowledge Hub will be Wirral’s solution to the industrial skills shortage in the Liverpool City Region.

A collaborative endeavour

The Maritime Knowledge Hub is backed by regional and national government and is being developed by the maritime industry, for the maritime industry.

It is a nationally significant project, backed by the Department for Transport’s Maritime 2050 strategy. What Silicon Valley has done for the technology industry, the Maritime Knowledge Hub will do for the maritime and marine industries.

The Maritime Knowledge Hub will turn the tide in favour of the UK’s maritime and marine industries.

World-leading facilities

From marine engineering research and development to survival training and business accelerator space, the Maritime Knowledge Hub will offer world-leading facilities that will put tenants on course for success. Featuring 60,000 sq ft of collaborative space, state of the art research and development facilities and a café/restaurant and visitor portal, the Maritime Knowledge Hub will be an international beacon of progressive maritime thinking and action.

The Maritime Knowledge Hub will feature:

• The Maritime Technology Centre.
• The Offshore Survival Training Centre.
• The Marine Simulation and Training Centre.
• A HydroLab.
• 60,000 sq ft of collaborative space.
• State of the art research and development facilities.
• And, much more…

If you’re in any way involved with the maritime industry, you need to be involved in the Maritime Knowledge Hub.

Immediate impact, long term results

The Maritime Knowledge Hub will put the Liverpool City Region back at the heart of the global maritime industry, delivering immediate and long-term benefits for the region, from new employment and training opportunities through to ‘levelling up’ and decarbonisation.

The Maritime Knowledge Hub will:

• Create hundreds of immediate job opportunities.
• Help with generating 4,000 jobs in the maritime sector.
• Support and boost the regional maritime economy which, at present, has a £4.2bn turnover and supports 52,000 jobs.
• Create a ripple-effect, boosting the wider LCR business eco-system.
• Deliver additional benefits to maritime businesses based within the MKH thanks to Wirral Waters’ Enterprise Zone status.
• Be delivered by the maritime industry, for the maritime industry.

Stronger together: MKH and the LCR’s key economic assets

The Maritime Knowledge Hub will make a significant contribution to the region’s economy. But not in isolation. Wirral Waters and the Maritime Knowledge Hub sit within a network of strategically important economic assets which are set to power the growth of the Liverpool City Region over the coming decades. Working collaboratively, these economic assets will address the region’s industrial skills and knowledge gap and make the region one of the best in the UK to do business.

Key Liverpool City Region business eco-system assets include:

• Materials Innovation Centre.
• Sci-Tech Daresbury.
• Manufacturing Technology Centre.
• The Knowledge Quarter.
• Packaging Innovation Centre.

Preserving and enhancing maritime heritage

For eight decades, the Hydraulic Tower and Engine House at Wirral Waters have stood derelict, awaiting a new lease of life. Now, two award-winning, internationally acclaimed architectural firms, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects in Denmark and Ellis Williams Architects in Liverpool, have been appointed by Peel L&P to preserve and enhance the maritime heritage of the Hydraulic Tower and Engine House and bring the Maritime Knowledge Hub to life.

The architects are committed to breathing new life back into the Grade II listed buildings, whilst protecting the heritage and history of the Jesse Hartley designed structures. The 19^th century Hydraulic Tower will retain as much of its original character as possible and will house meeting and work spaces, three pools including a HydroLab, a café/restaurant and visitor portal and an observatory that will provide views over Wirral Waters and the wider city region.

Complementing the refurbishment of the historical tower will be the creation of a centre for maritime entrepreneurship, enterprise, skills and culture to support the marine and maritime industries.

This new building will accommodate the bulk of the Marine Technology Centre, the Offshore Survival Training Centre and the Marine Simulation and Training Centre. It will be industry led and will drive research and innovation by bringing education, employers and businesses together.

A fusion of past and future

The new build extension element of the design will be lower in height and subservient to the main tower – the centrepiece of the project. A perimeter of reused of reused bricks, visually linking past and future, will surround the two buildings that make up the Maritime Knowledge Hub with a walled garden created that joins the old and the new. The integration of green spaces will extend to roof terraces that can be used for meetings and events.

The interiors of the buildings will feature open ceilings, with visible trays and pipes, and will consist of raw materials, such as steel and concrete.