Jewish Museum, Berlin - Daniel Libeskind - Berlin, Germany
N 52° 30.131 E 013° 23.680
33U E 391034 N 5818106
The design of the Museum engenders a fundamental rethinking of architecture in relation to its program. The new extension was completed in January 1999, and opened fully installed to the public in September 2001.
Waymark Code: WM9QNG
Location: Berlin, Germany
Date Posted: 09/20/2010
Views: 43
The museum adjoins the old Berlin Museum and sits on land that was West Berlin before the Berlin Wall fell. The Museum itself, consisting of about 161,000 square feet (15,000 square meters), is a twisted zig-zag and is accessible only via an underground passage from the Berlin Museum's baroque wing. Its shape is reminiscent of a warped Star of David. A "Void," an empty space about 66 feet (20 m) tall, slices linearly through the entire building. Menashe Kadishman's Shalechet (Fallen leaves) installation fills the void with 10,000 coarse iron faces. An irregular matrix of windows cuts in all orientations across the building's facade. A thin layer of zinc coats the building's exterior, which will oxidize and turn bluish as it weathers.
The intersection of tunnels underneath the museum.
A second underground tunnel connects the Museum proper to the E.T.A. Hoffmann Garden, or The Garden of Exile, whose foundation is tilted. The Garden's oleaster grows out of reach, atop 49 tall pillars.
The final underground tunnel leads from the Museum to the Holocaust Tower, a 79 foot (24 m) tall empty silo. The bare concrete Tower is neither heated nor cooled, and its only light comes from a small slit in its roof.
Similar to Libeskind’s first building, the Felix Nussbaum Haus, the museum consists of three spaces. All three of the underground tunnels, or "axes," intersect and may represent the connection between the three realities of Jewish life in Germany, as symbolized by each of the three spaces: Continuity with German history, Emigration from Germany, and the Holocaust.
The Jewish Museum Berlin was Daniel Libeskind’s first major international success.
In his research for the project, Libeskind read the Gedenkbuch, or Memorial Book, which lists all the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The report which he filed in the original design competition borrowed the form of the Gedenkbuch.
Libeskind, a musician himself, took inspiration from music and considered the museum the final act of Arnold Schoenberg's unfinished opera, Moses und Aron . Walter Benjamin's One Way Street's 60 sections determined the number of sections that comprise the museum's zigzag section.
Architect: Daniel Libeskind
Building name: Jewish Museum, Berlin
Year built: 1999
Building's primary use: Culture/Entertainment
City: Berlin
Country: Germany
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