B.Sc. Built Environment Studies Year 3

AUD3222 Contemporary Approaches to Architecture

Assignment

Martina Cutajar

34393(M)

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Daniel Libeskind

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Contents

Introduction 3

Case Studies

The Jewish Museum

World Trade Centre Masterplan

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5

Argument

End Space

Connections

Optimistic Architecture

Democratic Architecture

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6

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Conclusion 13

References 14

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Introduction

Daniel Libeskind is an international figure in the field of Architecture and Urban Design. He was born in Ldz,

Poland, and immigrated with his family as a teenager, when they settled in the Bronx, New York. Before the

start of his path into architecture, he received a scholarship to perform as a musical virtuoso, which he left in

order to study architecture.

In this day and age, Libeskind is often described as being one of the architecture professions elite. He has

had projects all over the world, some of which were of a significantly high profile, and was also awarded a

number of prizes.

Libeskind is most known for evoking memory and the past in new buildings, extensions and other proposals.

His first high profile work, The Jewish Museum in Berlin, is a seminal work that took around a decade to

complete. After this, a series of influential museum commissions followed.

With such a high profile, however, do come in the critics, and he has been both critically acclaimed and also

criticised in his work. In the London Times he was referred to as a global brand in an article by Tom

Dyckhoff.

By simply looking at Daniel Libeskinds works, one is confronted with very new, technological looking and

radical buildings. It is the purpose of this essay to understand why his works look like they do; what informs

the architects work and what motivates him to create these structures that look like something from the

future.

Certainly, Libeskinds designs wont appeal to all, especially so in their particular aesthetic. In fact, many

critics accuse Libeskind in the work he does as being a way of promoting his own brand and developing a

celebrity status. He has also, however, been critically lauded as an original thinker; the work and writings

definitely have been the subject of a number of articles and exhibitions.

In this essay, a few aspects are going to be discussed and argued, including: Daniel Libeskinds theory and

understanding of architecture, why his architecture looks like it does and what he aims to do with his

architecture, in his own view, in the reaction of the general public and in the view of critics.

In order to do this, two of his seminal works are going to be taken into consideration as Case Studies; as

examples of the architects designs and to support to some of the arguments. These projects are: the Jewish

Museum of Berlin and the new Masterplan for the World Trade Centre in New York.

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Case Studies

The Jewish Museum, Berlin

Daniel Libeskinds proposal for the Jewish Museum in Berlin won the competition for the design of this

museum in 1989. It was a proposal that was deemed to have come into the architectural scene as a new

species of architecture; spatially and materially, almost impossible to assimilate into known architectural

typologies.

The new construction is meant to link the building to the museums other structures and open spaces, not

only structurally but also thematically.

This one-storey construction is located near the site of the original Prussion Court of Justice building, which

now serves as the entrance to the new building. Within its purposes, this new design offers library space,

archives, an education centre and additional office space, storage and support for the museum.

To enter the building, the visitor enters the Baroque Kollegienjaus and consequently goes down a stairway

through the Entry Void into the underground. Above ground, the autonomy of the new and old structure is

preserved, but underground, they are tied together.

After the descent into the new structure, the visitor is faced with three separate routes. The first of these

leads to the Holocaust Tower a dead end. The second takes the visitor out of the building and into the

Garden of Exile and Emigration, in a recollection of those who were forced to leave Berlin. The third, longest

path leads to the Stair of Continuity, up to the exhibition spaces of the Museum, thus emphasizing the

continuum of history.

In the zigzagging plan of the building, a void cuts through, creating a space where absence is embodied. In its

impenetrability, it is the central focus around which exhibitions are organized. Onto this void, around 60

bridges open onto it.

Photo Guenter Schneider

Extracted from http://www.arcspace.com/features/daniel-libeskind/academy-

of-the-jewish-museum/ on 21-04-2015

Photo BitterBredt

Extracted from www10.aeccafe.com on 21-04-2015

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The Masterplan for the World Trade Centre, New York

In 2002, Studio Libeskinds design called Memory Foundations won the commission to develop the area in

lower Manhattan, New York, that was destroyed by the terrorist attack of 9/11.

In the design process of the master plan, Libeskind emphasised the importance he gave to working in close

contact with all the stakeholders involved in the project.

In his design, Libeskin dedicated half of the site to public space, which is defined by the Memorial and the

Memorial Museum. Along with that, locations where also set aside for a number of things, including; the

needed high-tech towers, the addition of retail, reconnecting transit concourses as well as a new

transportation station and a performing arts centre. This was all done whilst keeping in mind the restoration

of the original street grid plan.

The 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero was one of the first parts to be completed. It features two large square

pools on the sunken site, where water falls down within. Whilst there were separate architects working on

the specific things within the master plan, Libeskind mentioned in an article1 how the waterfalls were in the

initial project proposal. It was his idea that there had to be a screen of sound. This would shelter the

memorial from the bustling streets whilst introducing sounds of nature.

Next, the Memorial Museum opened in spring of 2014. It features underground galleries which expose the

slurry wall that survived the terrorist attack, as testimony and tribute to the strength in Americas

foundations.

The rest of the project is slowly coming along, with the Transportation Hub well on the way and one of the

World Trade towers scheduled to open in 2015. In general, it definitely was a long way until the design for

the whole project was finalised; due to many factors that go into a project as prominent as this one.

Photo 1 Joe Woolhead and Photo 2 Silverstein Properties Extracted from

http://www.archdaily.com/272280/ground-zero-master-plan-studio-daniel-libeskind/ on 21-04-2015

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Architecture that inspires

In a talk Libeskind gave, entitled Architecture is a language, he speaks about what informs his work, what

motivates his architecture.

Libeskind sees Architecture as a universal language of inspiration. Inspiration speaks all languages

everyone understands it. It is that all people can understand it that is the purpose with which he designs

new buildings. To Libeskind, a new building performs in a number of ways. It is an opportunity to generate a

new energy for a social cultural space, to affect people and make them think. It serves to seek the all elusive

purpose of architecture the undefined.

The work he produces follows this motivation in a number of ways, some distinctive, some abstract and

some are reflected in the way he approaches a project.

End Space

In the essay End Space from Theories and Manifestoes, a text extracted from Daniel Libeskind: Between

Zero and Infinity, the architect writes about the architectural drawings and text in the exploration and

creation of architecture. Drawings have somewhat depleted in use, and Libeskind states that they have

become the fixed and silent collaborators in the overwhelming endeavour of building and construction.

Drawing is not simple a means to invention. To Libeskind, it is an experience of the other.

Being neither pure registration nor pure creation, these drawings come to resemble an explication or a

reading of a pre-given text a text both generous and inexhaustible.

In a TED talk that Libeskind gave, he compares drawing to a score of music it signifies and portrays

proportions, light, materiality. It is the same in buildings and architecture. Drawing is the source of

architecture more than that, it seems like for Libeskind, it is the source of experience that his architecture

proposes.

Photo Studio Libeskind - Extracted from http://libeskind.com/work/ground-zero-master-plan/ on 21-04-2015

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It is the hand itself, the hand, the eye, the mind all interconnected. It is a process which isnt purely

intellectual but is something spiritual, desire and faith in something you cannot see proof of something that

is really there but not purely visible.

In the work of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, even the plan of the work lends itself to the conception of

architecture through drawing as an experience. Even within the building it is unexpected, there are dead

ends, bridges and not to mention the distinctive zig-zagging plan. If anything, Libeskinds architecture is

something that gives experience because it is so unique, but also unexpected.

One might say that as a result his designs look radical and raw. They are also at most of the time very

complex and expressive. This somewhat reflects the abstract nature of his texts and so, his thought process

and the way he describes architecture. The way he thinks about architecture also greatly reflects that fact

that he is greatly motivated by music and poetry since he was also a musician and wrote.

It reflects the way Libeskind thinks about architecture as a complex organism an extension of us, in a

sense.

Our lives are complex; our emotions are complex; our intellectual desires are complex. I believe that

architecture needs to mirror that complexity in every single space that we have, in every intimacy that we

possess.

It is certainly not uncommon in theory of architecture that the issue of complexity arises. In Robert Venturis

Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, he writes about the tendency of orthodox modern architects

Photos Studio Libeskind - Extracted from http://libeskind.com/work/ground-zero-master-plan/ on 01-05-2015

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not to recognize complexity consistently and sufficiently. By idealizing the primitive and elementary in an

attempt to break with tradition and for a fresh start, they do this at the expense of the sophisticated and

diverse.

I speak of complex and contradictory architecture based on the richness and ambiguity of modern

experience, including experience which is inherent in art. - Robert Venturi

Architecture is able to create emotion. A building that radiates something beyond itself there is no

impossibility in what it expresses. Libeskind, like Venturi isnt a fan of blatant simplification, and tends to

favour complexity and richness of meaning rather than clarity of meaning. Libeskind believes that

architecture should be expressive, unexpected and memorable. He defines that the silent building as a

myth the myth of Louis Khan. He says that he believes buildings should communicate across various

borders.

In a way, these attributes and approaches that feature prominently in Libeskinds work shows architecture

not as something that blends in with us and nature and history; but taking these into consideration and with

them create an experience that grows out of itself like the complexity we are and nature is.

A valid architecture evokes many levels of meaning and combinations of focus: its space and its elements

become readable and workable in several ways at once. Robert Venturi

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Connections

Through this evident uniqueness in Libeskinds architecture, it is clear that bringing this individuality to

architecture is essential in the architects work. Libeskind believes that it is necessary in order for the world

not to be homogenised which it shouldnt be.

Libeskind does in the initial stages by addressing the unique aspects to the site proposed. Libeskind

describes the need to dramatically innovate with architecture and create new meanings, look for new

approaches. This is described by the architect as an almost elite ambition to bring uniqueness to

architecture and get out of this generic idea of modernism an approach that essentially resulted in

homogenous buildings.

In this way he refers to the common criticism again modernism of everything ending up looking the same.

This idea of architecture in a contemporary setting directly relates to Kenneth Framptons Critical

Regionalism in a few aspects. In Framptons essay, he makes a case for an architecture with elements that

derive from the peculiarities of a particular place. He also makes a case against the modernist myth of

progress and regressing to the past, which is very similar to Libeskinds architectural theory.

When dealing with the initial stages of a project, Libeskind states that besides the obvious aspects of a site,

he finds this need to delve deep into the context physical, emotional, historical of the place. He looks

behind the site, below the site, up in the air over the site, in the smokes of the chimneys that went over the

clouds. He looks at and thinks about the invisible aspects to a place, how it came to be how it is and what it

went through, even if it is not directly visible at that time. He describes this as drawing the matrix of what

happened there.

What was it across the abyss that connected us today to that site?

Things should be evidently led from this point because it is so that one gets the right feel of a place, as in fact

Libeskind showed with respect to the site of the new master plan for the World Trade Centre. The feel of

place and the gravity of what happened is not something that one can easily experience through images only

Photo Joe Woodhead - Extracted from http://libeskind.com/work/ground-zero-master-plan/ on 01-05-2015

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it is hard to understand the density of human physicality that was destroyed in the attack. Libeskind

describes his own reaction to the site of Ground Zero as visceral.

In his work Libeskind puts importance on the more abstract and vague concepts in architecture the need to

address more than what is purely physical. Addressing the memory of a place is definitely something that is

highlighted in a number of his talks and interviews. Of course, it is essential, he is most known for dealing

with museums and memorials but not only those.

Even a program which is as humble as a private house should, in my view, refer to other things, not just to

the apparent, but lets call it the less visible, the less audible, which is part of this context.

Optimistic Architecture

Architecture is the optimist profession. Libeskind believes that while in certain professions it is possible to be

pessimistic, one cannot be a pessimistic architect. Architecture is always leaning towards building a better

future.

That was the first experience Libeskind had in architecture with the Jewish Museum. It was not about the

building because a building is just a means but how to you bring back the idea of what happened to Europe

eradication of culture, of people, of cities. There was the question of how to bring not the past that

cannot be unmade, you can never go back to the past but how to have hope be featured in architecture.

Without hope and optimism, how would you transcribe a history that is fatal disastrous and carve it into a

space of the soul.

We go to these cities that have been devastated by history and have to find some Archimedean points so

to speak to move forward. To open up discourse and new routes, to past, dead ends, continuities across

obstacles, to gardens.

It is also a question of how to assert life and the potential of resistance. It was like this when Libeskind was

designing the site for the World trade Centre. The intent and aim that came through is not only for it to

commemorate the horrible attacks, but to also give an inspiring place at the same time.

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This is done by highlighting Americas strong foundations and pointing towards a bright future. The memorial

and memorial museum feature remains that survived the attacks, they commemorate those who died and

its all set in a positive space that is designed as an open, public area for people of New York to enjoy.

This whole project was as a matter of fact criticized by Michael Sorkin especially, as being business as

usual, with considerable area being dedicated to office towers, retail and more economy oriented uses.

Both Michael Sorkin and Paul Goldberg suggested that nothing should happen in the short term within this

site which couldnt really be done.

First off, economically, it is not worth it for developers. And in the end, architecture as Libeskind believes it

should be, has the power and the intense need, to be optimistic. It relates back to an architecture of

inspiration, one of hope. By leaving the World Trade Centre as is, destroyed and barren, would accomplish

nothing.

Through optimism there is also this new image of the city that is being proposed as a consequence, it is not

just the building. The optimism is how to really embody a new spirit in a city. Even a small object can

transform how you feel, how you see and how new generations view these historic places and happenings as

a result.

Democratic Architecture

Due to how Libeskinds architecture looks, many people do not tend to readily accept it. This is evident from

the wide array of comments that one finds about Libeskinds work. While at this point in time, most on the

basis of opinions rather than facts, many accuse Libeskind that he designs how he does to promote his own

brand of architecture, in its very distinctive and radical nature, to raise his own celebrity.

Some of Daniel Libeskinds works are placed within entirely different contexts to what his designs seem to

portray for example, the new Jewish Museum in Berlin is located next to a 1753 building in a Baroque

style. This makes it obvious to see why people would criticize Libeskind and be against such futuristic

architecture, which at first glance, might not seem to fit in at all.

But there will always be this problem with new architecture, especially with Libeskinds approach of

expression and creating memorable architecture. People love the past, they tend to want to bring back the

past. Change is often not readily accepted.

With regards to this matter, Libeskind says himself that it is obvious that people tend to be very conservative

at times it is because they love their city. One can see where he is coming from.

Consider the Impressionists. Even though it is Art, not Architecture, it is this concept that I advocate for

certain great things that present change, are most often universally identified as truly important much after

they happen. Perhaps, this is one of those moments, and I believe that an open mind is essential when

judging new architecture. One cannot simply condemn it because it simply does not look like the tried and

tested architecture of the past and the buildings that already exist.

It is perhaps even due to this that Libeskind talks about the importance to include the public in architectural

projects. Architecture is public and people will be affected by it. Architecture is Democratic.

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In his Design for the World Trade Centre, Libeskind describes in an interview how difficult it was, dealing

with all the different people who took interest in the project and had thoughts and feelings about what

should happen. But it is necessary architecture is in the end is public art, and people should be at least

allowed to understand it.

According to Libeskind, the notion of the architect as the solo visionary is very old fashioned. A successful

contemporary architect is one who is able to engage with the client.

In post-modern approaches in architecture, this has been most evident in many theories. Most notably, in

Lbeskind approach, he believes that architecture should be non-homogenous so as to let people put their

own mark on it and vice versa.

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Conclusion

All in all, Libeskinds theory and approach to architecture is a very valid post-modern motivation to bring

technology into the personal and human and humanising aspects of complexity, expression and emotion.

On a certain level, he is proposing architecture that is of the contemporary world. It is an architecture that in

his view encompasses all different facets, obvious and not obvious that go into architecture and are affected

by it. It is an all-inclusive theory where he combines all these aspects together to create unique and personal

architecture that is specific to the particular place it is situated in.

Whilst there are many ways in which this theory could be manifested, his particular aesthetic is in the end an

expression. It is the architects expression, no doubt, but it is also an expression of society and culture today;

and it reflects a lot about it. But what does it reflect about society? Almost all his projects were

commissioned and directed by someone, if accepted by the public, by a commissions board or otherwise.

What it actually says, that is certainly very subjective in its tone and nature.

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References

Abc.net.au,. (2015). Architecture profile: Daniel Libeskind. Retrieved 18 April 2015, from

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/legacy/programs/atoday/stories/s229284.htm

Architecturemps.com,. (2015). Back Issues | Architecture_MPS. Retrieved 18 April 2015, from

http://architecturemps.com/back-issues/

Arcspace.com,. (2012). Academy of the Jewish Museum - Daniel Libeskind. Retrieved 18 April 2015, from

http://www.arcspace.com/features/daniel-libeskind/academy-of-the-jewish-museum/

Arcspace.com,. (2012). Academy of the Jewish Museum - Daniel Libeskind. Retrieved 15 April 2015, from

http://www.arcspace.com/features/daniel-libeskind/academy-of-the-jewish-museum/

Cbc.ca,. (2015). Love it or hate it, Libeskind's Denver gallery has impact. Retrieved 18 April 2015, from

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/love-it-or-hate-it-libeskind-s-denver-gallery-has-impact-1.573035

Chalcraft, E. (2013). Daniel Libeskind rails at architects "building gleaming towers for despots".Dezeen. Retrieved 18

April 2015, from http://www.dezeen.com/2013/02/25/libeskind-rails-at-architects-building-gleaming-towers-for-

despots/

Cornell.edu,. (2011). Counterpoint - CornellCast. Retrieved 16 April 2015, from http://www.cornell.edu/video/daniel-

libeskind-counterpoint

Libeskind,. (1999). Jewish Museum Berlin - Libeskind. Retrieved 15 April 2015, from http://libeskind.com/work/jewish-

museum-berlin/

Libeskind,. (1999). Work - Libeskind. Retrieved 14 April 2015, from http://libeskind.com/work/

Libeskind,. (2003). World Trade Center Master Plan - Libeskind. Retrieved 15 April 2015, from

http://libeskind.com/work/ground-zero-master-plan/

Notablebiographies.com,. Daniel Libeskind Biography - life, family, childhood, children, parents, name, history, school,

young. Retrieved 15 April 2015, from http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Li-Ou/Libeskind-Daniel.html

Vinnitskaya, I. (2013). Ground Zero Master Plan / Studio Daniel Libeskind. ArchDaily. Retrieved 18 April 2015, from

http://www.archdaily.com/272280/ground-zero-master-plan-studio-daniel-libeskind/

What if? Dunedin...,. (2015). Daniel Libeskind, on the scope of architecture. Retrieved 15 April 2015, from

https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/daniel-libeskind-on-the-scope-of-architecture/

Winston, A. (2014). Ignore critics, Beethoven was "a failure" to them too, says Libeskind. Dezeen. Retrieved 18 April

2015, from http://www.dezeen.com/2014/04/11/ignore-the-critics-beethoven-was-a-failure-in-their-eyes-too-says-

daniel-libeskind-interview-milan-2014/