Art & Design

The spectacular Jewish Museum of Berlin

jmkt_jens_ziehe

The Jewish museum in Berlin, is one of the most important buildings in the history of design and architecture, not only for the city of Berlin but also for Europe. The museum was founded in 1933, and found home in a baroque style building with. The museum was demolished by the Nazi, during the Word War II. After many years and lots of exhibitions about Jewish history, the German government decided to create a new building for the museum in 1988. The project bears the signature of an established architect, Daniel Libeskind. The new Jewish Museum at 2001, attracting millions of visitors from all over the world.

The building itself, is a monument for the Jewish people, since the way it is designed bears symbolic messages. The new building consists of an irregular matrix of window cuts, all across the building’s facade. The entrance of the museum is an underground tunnel starting from the old baroque building and leads to three other tunnels.

The first path leads to the “Garden of Exile”, an external space with a plot of 49 evenly spaced concrete columns that are some 20 feet high and crowned with willow oaks, creating a leafy canopy overhead. The ground is tilted at odd angles, creating a sense of disorientation. This garden symbolizes the “freedom” of the Jewish people who achieved to run away from Nazi.

The second road dead-ends in the “Holocaust Tower”. We could say that this place looks like a prison. The walls are made of rough concrete and sounds echo weirdly off the naked walls, contributing to the sinister atmosphere. The play of light on the walls creates mysterious shadows that haunt the dark room. The third and last road leads to an outstanding staircase of three floors with small windows which look like cuts on the walls leading the visitors to the main exhibition.

Another impressive hall, is in the first floor of the museum and everyone can see it from the cuts in the inside of the building. Israeli artist Menashe Kadishman has created steel sculptures of faces (Fallen Leaves), covering the entire floor of the Void. These faces symbolize the souls of the Jewish people, who died during WWII.

 


1109070150

JewishMuseumBerlinAerial

Berlin_A_346ppresize600the-jewish-museum-berlin-7-marcia-mello

voids

official site:  http://www.jmberlin.de/main/EN/homepage-EN.php