Daniel Libeskind

The raging curiosity of the Jewish Museum in Berlin was embedded during my second year of degree. We were congregated in the lecture hall for a half hour documentary on various architectural types, and that particular lazy Wednesday afternoon featured Libeskind. I had wrought it off as another dry run in the week, until I saw the stark dashes on the building facade, and finally began to value the crux of 'symbolic' architecture.

The basis of my recognition for this particular project is in appreciation of the very details and narrative of space that was designed within this museum. First and foremost, the museum is divided into two main buildings. One, a gothic-baroque building that serves as the main entrance and administration wing. The second, is a metal clad, window slitted, towering, zig zagging structure that stands like a fortress, a stark contrast to the elegance of the first building. The only way to enter this second building is by going underground, via a black staircase that leads the viewer deeper into the earth. This transition plays with the psychology of a visitor, implying the echoes of so many fallen Jews who were buried deep during the war.

The layout of the museum, then, is an angular, harsh network of criss-crossing corridors, with tall narrow halls and voids. Worth mentioning is the outdoor memorial of stone pillars, set at a diagonal plane. The memorial is orchestrated to give the visitor a sense of confusion, entrapment and illusion. Sunlight slivers in between these pillars, but only a few rays of light make it through. The other, and personally, the number one reason for my coming to Berlin, is Menashe Kadishman's Shalechet (Fallen leaves) installation. It is a narrow, triangular room that rises high above, lit by a small skylight from the roof. The floor is covered with hundreds of iron, screaming faces, which clinks and clashes hauntingly as you step over them. The elements of this room, cold air, empty grey walls, gashing windows, protruding beams, brings forth shadows of the pain that was suffered by victims of concentration camp. Being in this room brought chills down my spine and it is only with professional articulation that I gather the hope to design a building just as meaningful as this one day.

Above: Documentary of Libeskind's Jewish Memorial Museum.