Plans are developing for the memorably named “City Centre Cultural Gateway” or CCCG, known to most of us as the Ikea Building.
The building, which has been vacant for three years, is to be used for a variety of arts related activities. Outline plans for the conversion were given the green light earlier in the year.
Floors three and four of the empty store are set to be used as a ‘collections centre’ for thousands of artworks held by the Arts Council and the British Council.
It has now been announced that Coventry University wants to turn floors five and six into a “cultural hub” with a cafe that anyone can go and visit.
Professor Judith Mossman, who leads on arts and humanities at the university, said as well as teaching and research spaces, there will be facilities open to the public. “We’re going to have a gallery, we’re going
to have an exhibition space in the library,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting service.
“We’re going to have a flexible events space, we’re going to have a cafe, we’re going to have a shop, we’re going to have artists’ studios for creatives to rent. We’re very much hoping that this will soon not be a big empty building but a really buzzy space.”
As well as “opportunities for cultural engagement”, Prof Mossman highlighted hopes for a “really buzzy, nice, friendly cafe people can come and relax in.” “People used to go deliberately to IKEA just for the cafe.
We want people to come just to sit in the cafe. If they want to wander around, that’s brilliant,” she said.
The City Council has now announced that it is starting consultation on the use of floors one and two of the building.
One of the options is to use the space for Coventry Transport Museum – described by the council as a “reimagined cultural destination venue”. It has already been decided to relocate the museum’s extensive offsite car collection to the building.
The museum, home to the world’s largest publicly owned collection of British vehicles, has been at Millennium Place since 1980.
Consultation will take place over the summer with CV Life, who run the Transport Museum and other stakeholders. Wider public engagement is also planned.
The transformation of the Ikea building is being led by the City Council and will be delivered in three phases with the top two floors coming after the third floor, where the new ‘collections centre’ will be based, and ground floor.