Planit Liverpool Studio Story

The second of our Planit ‘Studio Stories’.

Our Liverpool story is told through our Planit Studio, which is nestled in the heart of Royal Albert Docks.

Liverpool is one of a few cities to have a set of defined characteristics which we, and our friend Rob Burns, term as the characteristics of ‘Liverpoolness’. They are both tangible and intangible. Some you can see and touch, others you just feel or sense.

Some overlap, like the idea of ‘Internationalism’. It manifests in the buildings. Those things that started in Liverpool and were exported in our communities and around the world; the multi-cultural landscape that is so often a hallmark of Port Cities across the globe.

Another is ‘Edginess’. Liverpool is a city built on movement and trade. Its shifting population and cosmopolitan identity created the opportunities for change and encouraged radicalism. So, it’s no surprise that this city has always been home to radicals, free-thinkers, and pioneers.

Planit’s work in Liverpool has spanned decades and miles – charting recent history through adaption and reuse of land and buildings that were forgotten or unloved as trade domination declined. It’s been a rare privilege to sit as part of a series of seemingly unconnected projects along Liverpool’s waterfront.

Alongside General Projects and Liverpool City Council, the next few years will see us carefully peel back the layers of history to transform the dock landscape into a greener, more welcoming, and accessible place – just one part of Europe’s largest Deep Retrofit project.

Beyond, stretching north, is one of the most ambitious plans for Liverpool since the original dock network was created during its maritime heyday. Liverpool Waters was conceived through the vision and determination of Peel Founder, John Whittaker, and will see place adaption on a global scale.

Vision and determination are further characteristics of ‘Liverpoolness’. A city built on a spirit of optimism and innovation. Like the International Garden Festival, Royal Albert Dock and Liverpool Waters, continual change, and redundancy followed by re-invention are of huge importance to Liverpool, as is football!

As we enter the final phase of Everton’s new home in Bramley Moore Dock, with its expansive public spaces and fan plazas, we stop to ponder how current and future generations of Scousers and its visitors, will experience our work; and the importance it will have in making Liverpool a sustainable home for an uncertain future.

We hope you enjoy our second story.