Sunday, 17 October 2010

Thought Provoking Design

On a recent trip to Berlin with my friends, i was taken aback by the violent history of the city during the Second World War. After Adolf Hitler and his Nazi army took control of the city in 1933, discrimination towards the German Jews became horrific with Hitler sending hundreds of thousands of men, women and children to their deaths at concentration camps.   
The Jewish Museum in Berlin was built in 2001 in memory of the innocent lives lost during this tragic war. The design, by Daniel Leibskind, not only houses artefact and films in respect of the dead, but is a memorial in its own right.

The building takes on the shape of a bent and twisted Star of David with its jagged angular form. The zinc coating, which covers the facade, is deeply gashed and torn to show the pain and suffering the Jews were subjected to during their war stricken lives in Germany. These cuts form windows into the building, which create dynamic and dramatic shadows within the museums interior. The internal floors are uneven, ascending and descending very gradually making the space feel very open in some areas but closed and tight in others. Leibskind has done this to create a sense of disorientation which symbolises how lost the Jewish people felt within their home country.
The museum creates the perfect environment to remember the dead with its thought provoking and dramatic design. Leibskind has successfully helped to ensure the events of World War Two are not forgotten and that the memory of those killed during this time lives on into the future.

1 comment:

  1. Yesss! This is one of the most impressive museums! Have been worth to visit!

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