Whitebook: Daniel Libeskind

architect portrait no.2

CREATING HOPE IN SPACES OF ABSENCE Like all architects, Daniel Libeskind takes great pride in creating spaces in places that never existed. His original designs have garnered international acclaim since the completion of his first masterpiece, the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

No account of contemporary architecture is complete without a discourse on Libeskind and his ability to transform interweaving but minimalistic concepts into abstract yet constructive ideas that are, more often than not, larger than life.

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Born in 1946 postwar Poland, Libeskind immigrated to America with his family amid a time of heightened political tension in his homeland, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen in 1964. A virtuoso performer who once played alongside famed violinist Itzhak Perlman, Libeskind directed his artistry into another harmonious form, receiving a professional architecture degree in 1970 from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. This was Libeskind’s true dream, having travelled extensively across the United States on his honeymoon to appreciate landmarks by masters like Frank Lloyd Wright. In his early career, critics often dismissed Libeskind's designs as “unbuildable” or “unduly assertive”; he only completed his first building at age 52 with the opening of the Felix Nussbaum Haus in 1998. The following year, the Jewish Museum drew recognition from around the world; as one of the first buildings designed after the reunification of Germany. This pièce de résistance was more than simply a gallery – it immediately became a new symbol for hope and progression. Libeskind explains his now-iconic work as an “expression of spaces and times, shadows, ghosts, horizons which unfold in an exciting way for viewers who might not ever hear of Berlin history, Jewish history, what it used to be like, what it might be in the future,” an attempt to create feelings between the viewer and the space they are interacting with.

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REVIVING HISTORY AND TRADITION Having been described as “deconstructivist” by some – one who takes regular rectangular shapes, breaks them up and reassembles them in a much different way – Libeskind sees the nature of his works as being both humanistic and cultural disciplines, grounding history and tradition as a vital element of his storytelling diasporas. One sees clear evidence of his philosophy in the Jewish Museum, where a complete integration of the interior, exterior and heart of the structure mimics the emotions of a disrupted culture. With his first-hand experience of Jewish persecution, Libeskind conceptualised a space rich with sharp corners, light, proportions, echoes, and void, believing that architecture should be a dialogue, a cultural medium that continually communicates with the people who inhabit it.

Text = Nicole Chan ★ Daniel Libeskind ★

Polish-American architect, artist and stage designer. His architectural accomplishments include the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and the Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabrück, Germany. In 2003, Libeskind won the World Trade Centre Site Memorial Competition to serve as master plan architect for rebuilding the Lower Manhattan site. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2014.

P36,37 / Royal Ontario Museu ©Royal Ontario Museum P37 /Royal Ontario Museu©Stephen Evens P37 / reconstruction of rebuilding World Trade Center©Silverstein Properties P38,39 / glass wall of Jüdisches Museum， Berlin©JMB Photo Jens Ziehe P40,41 / CityCenter, Las Vegas©CityCenter Land, LLC P41 / CityCenter, Las Vegas©Scott Francis P41 / Daniel Libeskind©Michael Klinkhamer

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