HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL: ARCHITECT PETER EISENMAN

Abrstract expression of a event in design using minimal architecture was something that i found very prominent and intresting in this project by peter eisenmann for the holocaust memorial at berlin compared to daneil lebiskind's litereal expression of the jewish history in his museuem here the architect uses minimum amount of architecture to convey the message strongly.

The Holocaust Memorial was designed by Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold.  It was completed on December 15, 2004 and inaugurated on May 10, 2005.Eisenman aimed to create an uneasy and confusing atmosphere.The monument is an abstract field of monoliths that has no information on it; there is no obvious implications of this being devoted to the Jews who died in the Holocaust.  This abstract nature of the monument creates the unsettling atmosphere and it allows the people to interpret it in various ways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7QKUsMNueQ

The monument was arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping hill. According to Eisenman’s Project Text the whole sculpture aims to represent an ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.The field consist of 2,711 monoliths that covers 13,000 square meters. Each Monolith is 7 ft 10 in (2.38 m) long 3 ft 1 in (.95 m) wide and the height varies from 8 in to 15 ft (.2 to 4.8 m) high

The different heights of the monoliths changes the topography of the original sloping field. Therefore as you walk through it you disappear into the sea of stone like going under water; you see people disappear into something that appears flat. This was not an intended effect by Eisenman but he related it to how Primo Levi talks about a similar idea in his book about Auschwitz, “Prisoners were not alive but not dead, rather they seemed to disappear into a personal hell”.

Eisenman didn’t use materials that came out of the soil, he stated that soil was for the Germans, “Blood and Soil” was the ideological moment that separated the Jews from the Germans. The monument commemorated only the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, although this is controversial Eisenmen stands by thisbecause he explained that the worst WWII got for the Nazis “the more they made sure they got the Jews”.

Underneath the pattern of the stele is echoed on the ceiling of the “Information Center” for the memorial. Blocks hang top-down like extensions of the concrete blocks above creating a meaningful unity with the stele memorial above. The space gives information of the Jewish Holocaust victims through images, written and spoken word, light and space. Made against Eisenmans will, the “Information Center” turns the memorial into a more traditional memorial.

The New Synagogue at dresten

Although not an memorial the building is designed on a site which used to have a synagougue which is jewish place of worship designed  by German master-architect Gottfried Semper, Dresden's main synagogue was constructed between 1838 and 1840. The beautiful building, which served as the primary worship location for Dresden's Jews, lasted for nearly 100 years before the dreadful night when it was burnt to the ground.

Known as Kristallnacht, the evening of November 9-10, 1938 saw the destruction of hundreds of buildings in Dresden, including the city's synagogues. Nazi arsonists saw to it that any properties owned by Dresden's Jews were destroyed in a night of terror that many would never forget during their lifetimes.

During World War II and the reign of Hitler and his regime, Dresden's Jewish population was reduced from 6,000 to about 50. It was decades before Jews would return to the embattled city. However, by the last decade of the 20th century, the Jewish population began growing once again in Dresden, with many of these new residents being immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

On November 9th, 2001, exactly 63 years after Kristallnacht, Dresden's revitalized Jewish community dedicated a new synagogue, situated at the site of the main synagogue, which burned on that fateful evening. It is said that one can still observe the glass shards in the ground at the new site, left from the destruction of the original synagogue.

The new building, designed by architectural firm Wandel, Hoefer, Lorch, and Hirsch, is a cubic structure with no windows; its architectural form is based on the first Israelite temples.

Dresden is characterised by two destructions: Gottfried Semper´s synagogue in the “Reichskristallnacht” on 9th of november 1938 and the entire historical city on 13th and 14th february 1945 by allied bombings. The destructions are historically linked. Yet the architectural consequences couldn`t be more different. On the one hand Dresden reproduces the historical monuments establishing a false continuity and a problematic pretension of architectural stability.

On the other hand the new synagogue represents an attempt which investigates the conflict between stability and fragility, between the permanent and the temporary, the temple and the tabernacle.

Inserted in the sloped topography of the site a central courtyard acts as a connecting element between the various uses of the synagogue and the community centre. The physical coherence is maintained by the use of a continious material (precast concrete stones with sand aggregates). Each building however has a character of its own.: The synagogue is a concentrated place of worship and meditation. The community centre refers to the urban fabric and creates a new entrance situation to the centre of the city.

Exploring the implications of stability and fragility the architecture of the synagogue is characterized by a material dualism: a monolithic structure of precast concrete stones and an interior structure of metallic textile . The twisting stone structure of the synagogue follows the geometry of the site and the requirement of an orientation towards the east.

In contrast to the monolithic structure, the interior of the synagogue is framed by a smooth metallic textile. Suspended from a concrete ceiling grid it constitutes the basic space of worship. The brass textile,developed with a clothing manufacturer, provides a specific auratic light. 

The architects understanding of the context of the design and the represention in a simple yet striking way in the design in terms of lining the past and present

holocaust memorial at new york

The memorials designed for he holocaust caught my attention a lot these pervious days and going through many of the these structures across the globe i found this building which is called as the living memorial for the holocaust.The architects usage of the 6 million jews being killed in the form of the roof as a living reminder of the even was something that i found intresting and also the representation of the 6 pointed star of david on the six sides of the building. The connection and indentity realisation in the bulding is very striking as compared to work of daneil lebiskind or petr eisserman in terms of expression.

Located on a narrow, triangular site at the lower tip of Manhattan, this memorial commemorates the victims of the Holocaust and tells the story of the Jews before, during, and after the Holocaust.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage/A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is a simple, austere, and dignified building that houses a powerful message. This hexagonal museum serves as a structural reminder of the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust. In addition, its six sides embody the six-pointed star of David that celebrates the Jewish people and culture that survived that terrible event.

Its facade of openings and recesses alerts the approaching visitor to the seriousness of the events that occurred. This effect is echoed over and over again in the roof. The roof elements reflect the daylight and at night will be illuminated so that all day and all night this reminder will be with us.

The structure of the museum is a physical symbol devoted to a deeper appreciation of Jewish heritage, an awareness of the Holocaust, and a heightened sense of the sanctity of human life.

The East Wing was completed in 2003. This 70,000 s.f., four-story expansion to the original building contains a state-of-the-art theater, gallery space, classrooms, offices, resource center and library, family history center, memorial garden, café, and special events hall.

Holocaust Museum Houston

Though there is anguish
deep in my soul -
What if I must search for you forever?
I must not lose faith.
I must not lose hope

Holocaust Museum Houston was created to recall the Holocaust, the murder of 6 million European Jews and millions of others, and the attempt to destroy a great civilization. It was also designed to teach people of all ages, backgrounds and interests that we can resist the worst in humankind. For these purposes, a dedicated site was commissioned and built to gather, teach, collect and preserve the history of the Holocaust.Over six years, a small medical clinic at the Museum’s current site was converted into the administrative offices and library of Holocaust Museum Houston.

New York architect Ralph Appelbaum, designer of the Permanent Exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, was selected in 1993 to design Houston’s Permanent Exhibition, “Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers,” he proposed more space was necessary to do it justice.

Today, Holocaust Museum Houston comprises the original building, housing classrooms, a library and galleries plus the Permanent Exhibition, a 105-seat theater and a Memorial Room totaling more than 27,000 square feet. The two wings are linked by a long tapering lobby that opens with an entrance hall and terminates in a tranquil outdoor garden.

Appelbaum and his colleagues devised an forceful addition to the existing building, a compelling collage of basic geometric forms. The new wing is wedge-shaped, with a sloping concrete surface, out of which rises a dark and looming cylinder. The top surface of the wedge is treated as a field of names, commemorating the destroyed Jewish communities of Europe. The cylinder references the chimneys of the crematoria used by the Nazis to burn the bodies of their victims in their killing centers and concentration camps. As Appelbaum remarked at the time that they wanted to trigger moral and ethical discussions in the community to alert people to what hate and racism can ultimately do.

At the front of the entrance stands six steel columns that recall the 6 million murdered Jews. A series of steel trestles evokes the railroad tracks on which thousands were carried to their deaths. Austere finishes-dark steel plates and beams combine with gray concrete to remind visitors of the faceless architecture of the death camps and the industrialization of mass murder.

The Permanent Exhibition inteprets chronologically the history of the Holocaust. The gallery ceiling starts high above the exhibition, then descends, just as the specter of death closed in on victims of the Holocaust as time passed. At the conclusion of the exhibition, visitors arrive at a circular theater that lies directly under the towering cylinder.

Flanking the installation of tiles, and creating a triptych, are the Wall of Remembrance (north side) and the Wall of Hope (south side). The former alludes to death and dying, the latter to renewal of life. Facing the Wall of Tears, along the west side of the Memorial Room, is the Memorial Wall designed by Houston architect Mark Mucasey, paved with ceramic tablets that are inscribed with the names of lost families. Beneath a line of scripture, families can commemorate the names of Houston survivors who have died. Together, architecture and art create a meditative space that is dignified and serene.

 

Holocaust History Museum

Another project that caught my eye while i was looking at buildings designed as a rememberance to the jewish holocaust was the holocaust history museum at jeruselum by moshe safdie.
the form of the building and the concept of a museum which was a building busting out of earth towards the north..a volcanic eruption of light and life was a different take in representing the jewish history. here the architects takes the user through a journey in which the holocaust is explained and seen at the various stages through the journey in the building and the end of the building opens into the clear sky over the hillside showing the light and life aspect. the concept of light at the end of a dark tunnel is taken literally in this building and i found that concept really intresting

The Holocaust History Museum, the most essential component of Safdie's 800,000-square-foot project, Most of the Museum's concrete and glass "main body" is hidden within the Mount of Remembrance, on which the Yad Vashem campus is situated, allowing little more than its 500 feet elongated, angular spine to convey a sense of its true scale.At one end of the spine, closest to the Museum's entrance and to the Visitors Center, a large triangular prism cantilevers outward over the valley floor, seemingly floating into space.At the opposite end, the museum's low-slung, slender walls burst forth from the hillside to form the curved pair of wings that mark the Museum's exit.A network of galleries, illuminated through the central skylight 60 feet above, are located along the Museum's partially submerged central walkway.The galleries, hidden from view when entering the museum, present the Holocaust chapter by chapter, along its historical and thematic course, as visitors proceed along the walkway.

At the end of the historical narrative the "Hall of Names" forms the final, dramatic display space.
The 30 feet high conical structure, open to the sky, houses the personal records of millions of Jewish Holocaust victims. A reciprocal cone, dug out of the natural bedrock, honors those victims whose names will never be known.

Jewish Contemporary Museum San Francisco by Daniel Libeskind

Understanding daneil lebiskinds work in the jewish history museum at berlin made me look through more of his work particularly towars the jewish history. after the sucess of the jewish berlin museum he also designed the jewish contemporary museum at sf.the design concept was based on the jewish expression "to life" the fact that he literally used the letters to design the form of the building caught my attention. and also his style of designing the form of the building which does not blend into the surroundings but still does not overpower the surrounding buildings is something that is similar to the jewish berlin museum and really inspriting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaBem6lM47I

The Contemporary Jewish Museum is 63,000-square-feet and located on Mission Street in downtown San Francisco. Since opening in June 2008, the Museum has provided space for temporary exhibitions as well as public and educational programs, and is itself a symbol dedicated to the history and revitalization of Jewish life in San Francisco. Housed in the abandoned late 19th-century Jessie Street Power Substation, updated in the first decade of the 20th century by Willis Polk, and landmarked in 1976, the museum makes visible relationships between new and old, between tradition and innovation, bringing together 19th, 20th and 21st century architecture into one building.

The CJM’s design is based on the Hebrew expression “L’Chaim,” which means “To Life.” Following the Jewish tradition, according to which letters are not mere signs, but substantial participants in the story they create, the two Hebrew letters of the chai — chet and yud — with all their symbolic, mathematical, and emblematic nuance, determined the form of the new museum. The building is based on unprecedented spaces created by theses two letter forms of the chai. The chet provides an overall continuity for the exhibition and educational spaces, and the yud, with its 36 windows, is located on the pedestrian connector.

NATIONAL MUSEUM KAMP VUGHT MONUMENT

As my intrest grew in the memorial buildings across the world for wars and particulaly the jewish holocaust victims and buildings build as memorial to them i came acoss this building designed by claus en kaan which is a national museum for kamp vught monument.

Not much is left of the Vught World War II concentration camp but a small piece of ground with the remains of the crematorium. These remnants stand more or less in the shadow of the maximum security prison built in the grounds of the former camp. Claus en Kaan were asked to design an entrance pavilion. The building, which contains exhibition space and offices for the foundation marks the entrance to the camp in the form of a screen. The façade is made out of bands of thin terracotta material, which alternate with heavy bricks, set back so that the space between the terracotta tiles can be filled to look like a thick joint. There are two routes through the building, one that visitors follow upon entering and the other as they leave the site. The exhibition rooms are set next to each other, without any connecting corridor.

The sequence of spaces in the museum included amemorial room with a ceiling opening which i found very intresting and ispriting as it seems like light coming from above in a spitual sense.In this space 750 plaques are monted inscribed with the dates of bith and death of those who were incarcerated here.The simplicity in the design and also the usage of simple materials and the minimal language in architecture which is seen in the slighly recessed bands of rendered brickwork to create a striped effect, the colour and degrees of permeability contribute to the expressive strenght of the building without overwhelming the visitor. i the interior anyway it has a additive assembly of larger and smaller spaces that offer two routes for the visitor a series of different architectural impressions.