Liebskind: A Visual Analysis

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The addition to the Jewish Museum in Berlin by Daniel Liebskind is a primary example of the kind of representation through buildings that Karsten Harries and Colin Davies discuss in their respective works, translating the meaning and spirituality of the form into a visible architecture. Also prominent in their discussions are the use of ornamentation both in painting and sculpture throughout the building, referencing the original ideas of representation in architecture through usage on frescos and friezes of Greek temples . The overall design of the museum is a chaotic zig-zag of axis, split between three paths: one concerning the history of German-Jewish people, one depicting the Holocaust, and another representing the emigration of Jewish people from Germany. The main exhibit establishes an understanding of the people, forming the Harries basis of community. Harries describes an interpretation of place as “furnishing individuals with a common ground and measure, to gather them into a community.” Once a space can obtain a communal understanding, that idea can then be used to represent the idea as a whole, and this could not be clearer in the understanding of the Jewish…show more content…
Another noteworthy sculptural aspect of the building is the second axis of the design which ends in the Garden of Exile, in which 49 irregular pillars rise from a sloped concrete courtyard, exuding feelings of loss, insignificance, and momentary exaltation through the sight of the sky between the pillars. Both of these spaces and sculptural elements create an immediate understanding of the immense suffering and pain experienced during the Holocaust, and the amount of life

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