The Architecture Thread

[dOmInIX]

Hey Rob, have you seen the Jewish Museum in Berlin? It is probably one of the best designed buildings I've ever seen, it is so amazing, every peace of it tells a story about history of Jews. Never knew architecture can be so expressive and exciting.

Jewish Museum Berlin
The building is very distinctive from other museums, since it does not respond to any functional requirements, but is rather constructed to create spaces that tell the story of the Jewish people in Germany. The museum itself is a work of art, blurring the lines between architecture and sculpture.

The view from above is that of a large zig-zag line, which earned it the nickname "blitz", German word for thunderbolt. The main building is covered with zinc plating, and the windows are just lines that cross the surface in a random fashion. These lines were created from connecting different sites in a Berlin map that are important to Jewish history. This building has no access of any kind from the street. The entrance is located in an adjacent building, a museum of German history, through a staircase and tunnel embedded in a concrete tower that goes through all the floors of the German museum. This symbolizes that German and Jewish history are inseparable, violent and secret. The staircase leads to an underground site, composed of three hallways, called axes: The Axis of Death, leads to a concrete tower that has been left empty, called The Holocaust Tower; The Axis of Exile, which leads to an exterior square courtyard composed of concrete columns and that has been tilted in one of its corners, called The Garden of Exile; and The Axis of Continuity, that goes through the other two hallways, representing the permanence of Jews in Germany in spite of the Holocaust and the Exile. This axis leads to a staircase, which in turn leads to the main building. The entrance to the museum is intentionally made difficult and long to instill in the visitor the feeling of challenge and hardship that is distinctive of Jewish history.

The main building, even though it seems skewed and irregular in general, hides a straight but discontinuous line, marked by hollow concrete towers painted black, with little windows from which visitors only can see the other visitors in opposite windows. One of these towers was called the Memory Void for those affected by the Holocaust. Menashe Kadishman's 'Shalechet' ('Fallen leaves') installation filled this void with 10,000 coarsely made iron faces. Visitors are permitted to walk on the work. Doing so creates an almost 'industrial' noise, something with deep meaning.



Jewish Museum Berlin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jewish Museum Berlin - The Axes of the Libeskind Building

Unfortunately I can't find many photos...What do you think of this?

[Rob]

It is a fantastic and very influential building Dom. I would love to see it one day.

Thank you for the information -- really interesting. It seems typical of the Jewish culture that this building is full of symbols and metaphysics.

The same architect, Daniel Libeskind, is the architect responsible for the new World Trade Center in NY

[Centurion]

Has the design for the new trade centers been finalised?

[Rob]

Modernist architecture has many facets to it -- it is important to recognize that Modernism is not a style, but rather an ideological Movement which is open to various interpretations.

Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France, 1950-1954


Brutalism.
Brutalism is another branch of Modern architecture which gained popularity in the mid 20th Century.

People either love or hate Brutalist architecture. Unlike the clean surfaces of Mies van der Rohe's buildings, Brutalist architecture uses materials in their raw state -- concrete, stone, wood.

Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation building from 1952 was enormously influential.




















Although some Brutalist buildings were very ugly, like all things, there are some very good examples as well.

Boston City Hall, part of Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts
(Gerhardt Kallmann and N. Michael McKinnell, 1969) (Wikipedia)


From Wikipedia
Brutalist buildings usually are formed with striking repetitive angular geometries, and often revealing the textures of the wooden forms used to shape the material, which is normally rough, unadorned poured concrete. Not all Brutalist buildings are formed from concrete. Instead, a building may achieve its Brutalist quality through a rough, blocky appearance, and the expression of its structural materials, forms, and services on its exterior

Brutalism as an architectural style also was associated with a social utopian ideology, which tended to be supported by its designers, especially Alison and Peter Smithson, near the height of the style.

Brutalism gained large momentum in Britain during the middle twentieth century, as economically depressed (and WWII-ravaged) communities sought inexpensive construction and design methods for low-cost housing, shopping centers, and government buildings. Nonetheless, many architects chose the Brutalist style even when they had large budgets, as they appreciated the 'honesty', the sculptural qualities, and perhaps, the uncompromising, anti-bourgeois, nature of the style

The failure of positive communities to form early on in some Brutalist structures, possibly due to the larger processes of urban decay that set in after World War II (especially in the United Kingdom), led to the combined unpopularity of both the ideology and the architectural style.

In the late 1960s, many campuses in North America were undergoing expansions and, as a result, there are a significant number of Brutalist buildings at U.S. and Canadian universities.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Luwalira

Has the design for the new trade centers been finalised?

It will be called the Freedom Tower.

As far as I'm aware this is the final design.

[Mr. Mercedes]

Originally Posted by Rob

It will be called the Freedom Tower.

As far as I'm aware this is the final design.

That is so uninspiring. I expected so much more from what is destined to be an iconic tower.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Mr. Mercedes

That is so uninspiring. I expected so much more from what is destined to be an iconic tower.

I know what you mean ....but it is a good-looking building -- I like the clever geometry of it.

Libeskind was forced to change his original design (below) because some prominent New Yorkers didn't like it. One of the most vocal critics was Donald Trump -- which I find particularly ironic considering that in his long career as a property developer he is yet to create a single building of genuine architectural significance or enduring aesthetic quality.

Libeskind's original design for the Freedom Tower.

[Rob]

Carlo Scarpa 1906 - 1978


Brion Tomb and Sanctuary, San Vito d'Altivole, Italy, 1968-1978

[dOmInIX]

Thanks very much for the info Rob! I like that Brutalism movement, and I remember that Corbuisier's building. It's cool.

I'm still amazed by that Jewish museum..

[notic]

this reminds me so much of the library at my university


thanks for the info Rob