Architectural concepts and

their manifestation
Theories of Architecture
Addition to the Jewish
Museum
Overview

• Location Berlin,
Germany
• Design Daniel Libeskind
• Competition 1989
• Completion 1999
• Opening 2001
• Client Land Berlin
• Net Area 120, 000 sq. ft.
• Structure Reinforced
Concrete
 with Zinc Facade
• Building Cost USD 40.05
“The Jewish Museum is conceived as an emblem in
which
the Invisible and the Visible are the structural
features which
have been gathered in this space of Berlin and laid
bare
in an architecture where the unnamed remains the
 The Lines
Libeskind felt there was an invisible
matrix
of connections between the figures of
Jews
and Germans.

The architect plotted an IRRATIONAL

MATRIX
which resembled a distorted star.

‘the yellow star that was often worn on

this site.’

To give dimension to the deported

and missing Berliners, conceptually
Libeskind makes the invisible ,
visible by trying to
 Design Conceptualization

rajectories between points AB.

Crisscrossing Jewish and German

history lines.

Berliner Luft—the air across Berlin.

 Design Conceptualization

tar evolving into a zigzag.

Combination of the invisibility of the Jews and the history lines of Jews
 New vs Old
It is a museum for all Berliners, all
citizens.
It is an attempt to give a voice to a
common Fate.
The extension is conceived as an emblem of
Hope.
The void and the invisible are the
structural Features.
In terms of the city, the idea is to give
new value to the existing context
New vs Old
 Building Configuration
The Voids represent the central structural element of the New Building.

From the Old Building, a staircase leads down to the basement through a Void
of bare concrete
which joins the two buildings.

Old Museum
Five Voids run vertically
through
the new building

New Museum Walls of bare concrete

Not heated or air conditioned

Tower
of Silence
Garden of Exile Largely without artificial
light
Axis of Exile & Axis of
Holocust

Axis of Exile

Axis of Holocaust
 Garden of Exile

Forty-nine concrete stalea rise out of the square plot

The whole garden is at 12° gradient meant to disorient visitors with a sense
of total instability and lack of orientation.

Those driven out of Germany Oleaster grows on top of

pillars symbolizing hope.
 Tower of Silence

The Axis of the Holocaust leads

through a heavy black steel door into
the Holocaust Tower.

It is a void outside the museum

Building.

It is a bare concrete tower 24 meters

high.

It is not heated, air-conditioned, or

Insulated.

It is lit by a single narrow slit high

above the ground.

Noises from the outside can be heard.

The bare and empty tower pays tribute

to the numerous Jewish victims of mass
The structure of this building goes far beyond the physical realm.

It addresses the social structure of Berlin and the absence of Jews in

Berlin.

Libeskind creates a dialogue between the past and the present of the
Holocaust, and most importantly, Libeskind poses the question, how
Machine – a expression
into architecture
 “Machine contains within its self
the factor of economy, which
makes for selection.”
beauty of more technical order.

n aesthetic nearer to its original origins.

E CORBUSIER
OWARDS A NEW ARCHITECTURE
House is a machine to live in
 A standard is definitively established by
experiment

Standards are a matter

of logic, analysis and
minute study;
they are based on a problem which
has been well defined.
Parthenon is a product of selection applied to
a standard.
Architecture operates in accordance with
standards.
 Human Body – A machine

lists tried to connect the workings of the human body to that of a mach

ed to a brief age when brutalist architecture and evolutionary buildings

 Living Example
Just like Le Corbusier, “Form follows function”, the idea of METABOLISM
confirmed to its principle.

Embedded in the premise is the question of aesthetics, language and

style.

anashi Press & Broadcasting Centre – Kenzo Tange - Japan

 Capsule Tower – a memory
a p su le to w e r h a d m o d u le s th a t w e re m a ch in e s m a d e to h u m a n sca le .

a g in C a p su le To w e r – K ish o K u ro ka w a – To kyo - Ja p a n
Libeskind’s Three Lessons in
Architecture.
 Reading Machine
"Teaches an almost forgotten process
of building, a process which is in its
own way not yet fully unfolded in
Architecture.

The wheel revolves, and in completing

a revolution returns to its starting
point while exposing its own
uselessness and kinetic beauty.

Executed in a "medieval" manner, with

glue less joints and using no energy
of a contemporary kind, this machine
represents the triumph of spirit over
matter; of candle light over darkness. 
It is made solely from wood, as are
the books."
 Memory Machine
"The Memory Machine (dedicated to
Erasmus) consists of the backstage
only - the spectacle takes place
wholly outside of it. 

Done in a "Renaissance" style of being,

the Memory Machine abounds in the kind
of inventiveness and caprice that we
associate with the Odradek.

This project represents the stage of

Architecture's appearance and is a
testament to its own manifestation. 
Made of wood also are the eighteen
subordinate spectacles, which include
the "schizophrenic forum".  Colourless:
the bloody red illuminates the shiny
exterior of an inner sanctum dedicated
to what remains nameless.  Metal is
used exclusively for non-structural
reasons, related as it is to light
itself.  Ropes are used throughout."
Writing Machine