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A team led by David Adjaye and Asif Khan has been announced as the winner of a competition to design a transformation of Liverpool鈥檚 historic Canning Dock.

The project will aim to tell the story of the controversial site鈥檚 links with the Atlantic slave trade with a new public realm and public art strategy.

The winning team, which also includes Nigerian architect Mariam Kamara and US installation artist Theaster Gates, pipped rival teams led by DSDHA, Shedkm, Arup and OMMX to win the prestigious urban regeneration job.

The competition shortlist also featured a team led by BIG which included Adjaye鈥檚 music producer and sound artist brother, Peter Adjaye.

The six teams were chosen by a seven-member judging panel which included AHMM founder Paul Monaghan and landscape architect Annie Coombs.

Canning dock, which is at the centre of a cluster of museums on Liverpool鈥檚 listed waterfront, was originally opened in 1737 and was a key port serving ships transporting slaves across the Atlantic in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

National Museums Liverpool (NML), which is leading the project, is overseeing a 10-year masterplan to reimagine the waterfront.

It said the scheme will look for ways to bring the history of the slave trade into the public realm through 鈥渃ompelling and sensitive鈥� designs which engage and represent liverpool鈥檚 black communities.

Adjaye said the work will be an opportunity to 鈥減owerfully reformulate the history of Liverpool through re-invigorating the diverse social, civic and environmental context of the city鈥�.

He added that recognising the history of the site in a new public realm strategy 鈥渉olds the potential to create a distinct, engaging, and empowering identity for the community to grow with and in.鈥�

Asif Khan said he and his fellow competition winners had formed a 鈥渄ifferent kind of design team鈥� which aimed to 鈥渟teward a significantly meaningful鈥� project into being.

He said: 鈥淗istory is like the ocean, with all its depths and treachery. 

鈥淟ooking out from the shore, those waters feel like they belong to us, and yet the sea looks so different from where you stand in the world. 

鈥淗istory can wash things away one day and brings them back like ghost ships the next. Reconciling with history is how we grow as individuals, as communities, and 鈥� we believe 鈥� is what makes life and cities beautiful.鈥�

Mariam Kamara said the project would be an opportunity to 鈥渆xhume memories鈥�, allowing visitors to explore and engage with the dock鈥檚 history while 鈥渇irmly facing towards the future鈥�.

鈥淭he Canning Dock transformation is a chance to explore the power of architecture as a storytelling tool to bridge the gaps in knowledge that exist about the history of Liverpool as well as this significant site. 

鈥淭he NML Waterfront Transformation is an opportunity to pull on the threads that make up the history of the transatlantic slave trade - from Africa, across the Atlantic to the US and back to Liverpool.鈥�

Theaster Gates said the project 鈥渨ill not be an easy journey鈥� but that the team would 鈥渢ake the task with great humility and seriousness.鈥�

He added: 鈥淐ommemoration and memorial making are some of the most important acts a nation can be involved in - especially commemoration around racial complexity and social ill. 

鈥淐anning Dock represents one of the most important racialised sites in the UK and it gives me tremendous honour to work with this team to realise the complexity of the site. 

鈥淲e hope that by using the tools of monument making and memorialising and commemoration, we will be able to do what many have not been able to do, which is to give emotional heft to the truth of slavery in the UK historically and the possibility for a site of re-emotionalising, healing, and processing those complexities.鈥�

The project will include new bridges and pedestrian routes connecting parts of the complex site, which links Mann Island with the adjacent Royal Albert Dock.

Two dry docks next to the museum buildings will be reimagined as an 鈥渆ducational and cultural experience鈥�, according to NML, while the area鈥檚 International Slavery Museum will be enhanced with a 鈥渄ramatic鈥� new front door.

NML said the scheme said the 鈥渢imely鈥� transformation would not just be for the benefit of Liverpool, but for the whole of the UK.

The competition has been funded by Liverpool city region combined authority, with NML currently in the process of securing funds to realise the project.

Liverpool city council has lodged a bid for the government鈥檚 levelling up fund, with the outcome expected to be announced later this autumn.