Jewish Museum in Berlin by Danial Libeskind

















Our current project for design, to conclude the first semester, is an extension to the public library in Goven Mbeki. The site is set in an historic context, therefore, one needs to be extremely suttle in the design approach. One needs to be aware of the cultural aspect of the existing building and what it means to the city by examining the pattern use and cultural responses and how robust the building is for those who use it.

Dealing with an historic context a thorough investigation needs to be done so one is aware of how new extensions fit in to significantly old monumental buildings. Liebeskind's Jewish Museum is a good start for a precedent study, as it is set within an historical context dealing with movement paths within the macro environment.

I am interested in how Libeskind encoded the questions of recording and remembering Jewish history in the structure/program. I've found that he used a series of metaphors for his creation of floor plan, voids and paths and even the shape of windows.

As for circulation, the visitor must descend to the basement level and enter the new museum through an underground corridor. The path's walls and floor slope and converge; at its end are three routes: to the E. T A. Hoffman Garden, to the memorial Holocaust Void, and to a stair leading to the galleries. The monumental stair, tightly bounded between its walls, rises all the way through the building, crossed by angled concrete beams. Libeskind's name for the project is "Between the lines," and the title manifests in a perfectly straight stroke that penetrates the fragmented composition. Where this line slices the plan, the architect has left seven voids - metaphors for the absence and erasure of Jewish history in Berlin (Zeiger 2005).

Reference: Zeiger, M. (2005), New Museum Architecture: Innovative Buildings from Around the World, Thames & Hudson: London.