DANIEL LIBESKIND
• Born May 12th 1946, Poland
• Polish-American architect, artist, professor and set designer
• Studio Libeskind – 1989
• Performed in Polish television – 1953
• American-Israel cultural foundation scholarship – 1959
• 1968 – Apprentice to architect Richard Meier
• 1970 – Architecture degree from Cooper Union for advancement of science and
Art
• 1972 – Post graduate degree in history and theory of architecture at school of
comparative studies at the university of Essex
• 2003 – won competition for the masterplan architect for the reconstruction of
the world trade centre site in Lower Manhattan
• Started his career as theorist and professor at various institutions
PHILOSOPHY
• Architecture tells a story about the world, our desires and dreams.
• Architecture and the buildings are much more than a place they are destinations meant to evoke emotion and
to make you think about the world we all live in
• Buildings and urban projects are crafted with human energy and that they speak to the larger cultural
community in which they are built
DESIGN CHARECTERISTICS - DECONSTRUCTIVISM
• Deconstructing is to deform a rationally structured space so that the elements within that space are forced into
new relationships. It features a lot of chopping up, layering and fragmenting
• His designs combine with architecture and background (finishing)
• Drastic angles, strong geometrics and seamless transitions between spaces
1981 1987 1991
“Architecture is a communicative art. All too often,
however, architecture is seen as mute. Buildings are
understood as disposable consumer items whose sole fate
is to disappear with their use. I am determined to get
DECONSTRUCTION STYLE
away from this over simplified view of architecture’s
tradition to overcome the dichotomy of extremes”
LAYERING
His aim was to create a building, not only intelligently
programmed for the events which were to take place in
it, but one which emotionally moved the soul of the ANGULAR
visitor toward a sometimes unexpected realization
ORGANIC (CURVILINEAR)
In order to touch the passions of the visitor, and
structure a building that is boldly put together, he CHAOS
designed a building that is emblematic of the earth
shattered by conflict. As the visitor moves through this
splintered globe with its fragmented curvatures, there is
a feeling of vulnerability.
https://www.inexhibit.com/architects-artists/daniel-libeskind-works-of-architecture-art-and-design/
JEWISH
MUSEUM
BETWEEN
THE LINES
• Completed in
1999
• Opened in 2001
• Zig zag line
represents the
atrocities done
on Jewish
• Cladded with
titanium
covered zinc
which will
oxidize
• Libeskind’s academic and intellectual practice culminate in this
much-talked-about and unusual building. The design is based
on a rather involved process of connecting lines between
locations of historic events and locations of Jewish culture in
Berlin.
• Libeskind also has used the concepts of absence, emptiness,
and the invisible— expressions of the disappearance of Jewish
culture in the city—to design the building
• This concept takes form in an angled sequence through the
building, orchestrated to allow the visitor to see (but not to
enter) certain empty rooms, which Libeskind terms ‘voided
voids.’ The ideas which generate the plan of the building
repeat themselves on the surface of the building, where voids,
windows, and perforations form a sort of cosmological
composition on an otherwise undifferentiated, zig-zagging zinc
surface. If the intellectual narrative which generates
Libeskind’s work is complicated and inaccessible to the
uninitiated, the building itself should stir emotion in even the
most casual visitor.
https://www.dezeen.com/2012/11/21/the-academy-of-the-jewish-museum-berlin-by-daniel-libeskind/
• Understanding the history of berlin
without understanding the enormous
intellectual, economic and cultural
contribution made by the Jewish
citizens of Berlin
• The necessity to integrate physically
and spiritually the meaning of the
holocaust into the consciousness and
memory of the city of berlin
• The official name of the project is the
"Jewish Museum", but also called it
"Between the Lines.“ It is a project
about two lines of thinking,
organization and relationship. One is a
straight line, but broken into many
fragments; the other is a tortuous
line, but continuing indefinitely
The startling and stark subject
matter of the Museum is
addressed not only by the
exhibitions, but by an emotive
and visceral relationship to the
building. The interplay between
known proportion and the
unknown disproportion, between
an anticipated roof and an
unanticipated wall eliminates the
space in which Medusa’s face
shows itself. The danger of being
turned into stone by simply
becoming a voyeur, gives way to
the unique spatiality of the
exhibition. The architectural
topography of the building allows
gravity to act on the body and on
the consciousness of the visitor
in order to vitalize one’s
awareness. The experience of
architecture together with
exhibition is choreographed
through a series of precise and
discrete movements, each of
which is connected to the
unfolding adventure
THE CONTINUITY
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
THE AXES
THE CONTINUITY
THE EMIGRATION
THE HOLOCAUST
IMPERIAL
WAR
MUSEUM
• Manchester,
England
• The Imperial War Museum North (IWMN) in
Manchester, England, tells the story of how
war has affected the lives of British and the
Commonwealth citizens since 1914.
• For his expressiveness and his formal
introduction to the context, the Museum is a
strong symbol for the city of Manchester City.
• The museum features a permanent exhibition
of chronological and thematic displays,
supported by hourly audio visual
presentations which are projected
throughout the gallery space.
• The design concept is a globe shattered into
fragments and then reassembled.
• The interlocking of three of these
fragments—representing earth, air, and
water —comprise the building’s form.
• Remedy the war, each branch is a volume
that reproduces the curvature of the earth
and creates the disturbing impression that a
piece of the world and ended up broke
embedded in the port of Manchester.
• Flags representing earth, water and air
behave as three interconnected rooms that
house all the functions: exhibition halls,
restaurants and entertainment spaces.
• Aluminium cover with a steel structure and
free-form geometry asymmetric rolling. https://libeskind.com/search/imperial+war+museum
The air shard is simply an
empty tower, 55 meters high,
with a viewing platform two
thirds of the way up. Rather it
is not empty, but filled with
the uninspired scaffolding
required to support it in the
wind. The elegance of the
sculptural shape is not
matched by any elegance in
the engineering that supports
it.
The interior of the main
(earth) shard is a sparsely
filled exhibition space
artificially lit and punctuated
by Libeskind's distinctive
acute angles and slashes in
the ceiling. For twenty
minutes in each hour this
space is darkened and
transformed into an
'experience' of the sounds
and images of war, with every
one of the angled walls
becoming floor-to-ceiling
projection screens.
• The Earth Shard forms the generous and flexible museum space. It signifies the
open, earthly realm of conflict and war.
• The Air Shard with its projected images, observatory and education spaces, serves
as a dramatic entry into the Museum.
• The Water Shard forms the platform for viewing the Canal with its restaurant, cafe,
deck and performance space.
• These three shards together: Earth, Air and Water concretize Twentieth century
conflicts which has never taken place on an abstract piece of paper, but has been
fought on dramatic terrain by the infantry, in the skies by the air force and battled
with ships in the sea.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
UPPER FLOOR PLAN
