Daniel Libeskind Curtis, William J R The Architectural Review; Oct 2011; 230, 1376; ProQuest SciTech Collection pe. 116 REPUTATIONS Daniel Libeskind | WILLIAMJRCURTIS Tt isa curious experience to go back toHerlinafteranabsence ofsome | 1®years, Daniel Labeskind’s Jewish | ‘Museum was under onstruction ‘when Iwas lt there in 1006 but 1 id snatch a glimpse of the building | with ts zigzag plan and diagonal sashes of light. The themes of ‘Walter Benjamin's One-Way Street, and of the central void lft bythe Holocaust, were clear enough in the drawings and models bat not yet ‘peroeptble in the construct | Only days ago, I went back and cexperienood tho fnishod building | forthe frst time. It snow an established landmark nthe: | "The reaotion waa mixed. The leuning | exterior i more subdued than many Imagined and makes a dynamic fol to the old masoum building of which itisan annexe. The theme ofthe street, with ts three diagonal crossing points one to annihilation, ono tothe diaspora and one to the future, is clearly spelt ot. The void af the centre of the building, the dark tower chamber atthe end of the Holocaust Street, and the tilting grid ‘ofstele in the Garden of Eile are strong spatial experiences as is the central stair ending in a blank wall, ‘Bat the route through the upstairs slleries is a muddle and the matter ‘snot improved bythe confusod presentation, which isnot worthy ofits tragic subject matter. ‘Not evervono approves of LLibeskind'stheatricaP rendition ofa trocbled past but the Jewish ‘Museum in Berin stands as a ork fall of promise, designed by an architect who waa in hie fort ‘when he conceived the idea. This was ‘ota matter of Deconstractivist ‘mannerisms that were so fashionable atthe timo, bt ofa narrative ‘translated into abstract form, light tnd space through the medium of | srchitecture. There was another Libeskind project ofthe early 1980s te vel pot othe Titel Souarcioc nancy in Teams Garden a aes Feat Aimee in tb Sen ora fom aero pal nndaeateo nag baci the_| talon open een ate antigen dot owed | groat deal to Richard Serra's sculptures using sce blades and tats; batt showed bow Libeskind | ‘ras capable of ung abstrustion to {ouch upon subiminal emotions, to irmemories anderen to coeourage | anediation, Although small, the projet possessed restrained | ‘monumental. Thee wo works of {he 1090s continoed investigations | Inunched a decade eater in the sletches ofthe Choral Works which ‘explored a sort of veal equialence {omen scores of w kind The Berlin and Almere acherte eal to nnd Witigenstlns observation: ‘Remember the inpresion one gots trom good architecture, that it expresses a thought. Tt makes one ‘rant to repond witha geste” So what went wrongt Fast forward to this year's Bun ton Shaw Creative Media Centre forthe City University of Hong Kong, a pile-up of Libeskindlan clichés without sense, form or meaning ~ a reduction to carleatreofal thatthe Jewish Msoum stout to achive, Or take the project for Gazprom City in St Peusrsbury of 2000, 00m al “tower that resembles high heel shoe OF the Tangent facade for Hyundai Development Corporation Feadquarere in Sou! of 2009, with its ering round mask, Ike cartoon an. poster, but rendered ina visa! Jnguage devaluing B Listy cana iin totines tet | tnd poiky corporate message acrous the mes of an Bast Asan city. Talk aout an anevn trajectory. This was ‘irtoally a betrayal fall that Libecind tal stood for. Maybe the trouble started with the famous Freedom Tower’ fiasco in Now York, the skyscraper which from a certain angle mimicked the ‘He lost his architectural soul, like s0 many other architects of orn oe auction Cooper Union ‘aoc University ‘TheMetneriands (1882) ey bunes ‘Osnabruck, Corman (1888) ‘owen Musou Bertin | stay tor Reno ‘Manchestr Ux (2002) Masterplan forthe ‘Wor Pade Comers, [AIAMew York an the Conter ferArennocur Foundation Presiden Amar (2008) praised arm of the Statue of Liberty and announced its all-American ‘redentials by being 1,778 tall (the date of American Independence 177 and all thath, Suddenty, the | Dan had boon labo centting through the tangled ‘suppressions of diffeult European ‘war memories seemed to let his architecture serve the dubious Neo-Con redefinition of 9/11 asan attack upon the reodoms' ofthe US, Ifmot the "Western World’ in general 'A8 it turns oat, these freedoms” Included the right” to invade countries illegally, to setup prison ‘camps and to muzale the freedom of the press and the fre expression of publi opinion with the Patriot Act. Not Libesking’s falt, of course, but he took a risk in playing along with ‘narrative embedded in halttraths snd in a refisal to look crtially at international political reality. You ‘can wear love New York’ buttons and appear on T¥ chat shows but it turns out that NY does not love architecture. Inthe end, everything {reduced to the level ofthe real estate developer's calealations. A skyscraper is Justa skysoraper, er all, a banal stack of offices whaterer cartoons, national mys, or twists and turns one may apply to it. 80 Libescing hit the big time ‘and became asuocest story’ and an {international brand inthe global star ‘system. But perhaps he lost his architectaral sool inthe process, like so many other architects of ‘his goneration once trumpeted. as being part ofthe supposedly ‘critical avant-garde’. One thinks (of Coop Himmelbhan, the Rolling ‘Stones of Vienna with thelr Blue “Angel creeping orera rooftop, ‘then the monstrosity ofits recent skyscraper for Shenzhen; of Peter ‘Bisonman's theorising snatched from Derrida, then the catastrophic reality ofthe City of Catare in Galicta; of ‘Zaha Hadid with her neo-Lissitzky paintings ofthe Hong Kong Peak Droject, then the jumble of computer generated formalism wry rTr~ Tc” m™m™ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.being dumped all around the world, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permissionesl lens former olor of The Ariel! Journal Now the design director of Hb Housing, ‘whic has eat completed its rt sheme she Writs on new housing typologes in Berlin ler Vitro Aare the City aa Projet PADD rogram at th Berlage Institute and teaches {nthe Arwhitectural Assoatations diploma sol, Hie co-founded tho collesive Doxa ‘wan ane ins to 'shallongn alone standing tradition of depicting bling ws stati ~ never ‘more go tha in captrlg the skataboarder wing ‘the now oath entre in Mérida, Span, Martew Bares our new Pedagogy correspondent, ‘Lento lecturer at London fost Bask ‘avert his PhD from Cumbre University ‘won the WIR Preeidents Award for Research Peter andl dene profesor ofarciectane athe Univesity of Sheed, waking him the [deal oe ecrrezpondont to revit the city’s redoreloped Park Il housing where Petertachaans a former depsty editor of the AR, ‘Apintemmatonaly renowned erftle and author, this ‘month be expiains the meat ear forthe {ntrodtion of oar new Revisit sries evidCota moved to Madd in 1088 after studing froiteohre at Columbia and Yale Te hor of eral books on Spanish arhitotare and an sid blogger (vewtiommadsd bogepotcom), be welts hereon Mérido’ latest public apaces ent cotle trained atthe Royal Collegeof Art and bora hiv earoer with British Tepue. Our oot e ‘fom he photographie way’ on Park Hil wil ‘was takon gvera umber of yeas from before eonstracton began Pater Cok sown as columalst to our readers, {daround the world for Archlgram, the Bartle, 8d now his sta, Crab. He returas from Japan ‘than appraisal of light whooladaition Wotan amcurte is a regula: conteIbovor to these pages Hei the author af the seminal texts Modern Arehiaetire Since 1000 ant be Corbusier: ‘dees and Parma wi this orth write tw peor ‘olbrating Garb and Jocoustrctng ibsklod ‘Peterbary has n OBE an! «Finish knighthood, ‘but his greatat distinction surviving ax eltor of The Architectural Revie fra quarter of century. ere be rfectson the ARs Townseape camp danas Danet vas bor n Bulgaria, studied lreltacsuro in Cansbridgo, nd now resides In lalington, north London, An expert on ‘eyo Goliger (he used bo work far hin), ‘ho writes in those pages or sodaist moderalam Mark yttam o sounded Tokso-baned practice ‘Klein Dyttam. This year he mised jag tho Af loose Awards eo he coald met and peat Ue ‘UB's Bosinow: Socrtary Vince Cable on his it ta Japan to see the progres ofthe rebullng effort. | Mark cables his report fom Senda! ‘dtiaser ia profostor of economics at Harvard. ehas published score of books on the esonomis of ties ost recent te highly regarded ‘rsa of Cy in February Hoshares Mis ‘economist’ perspoctive in or fist Hroader Viow Jonathan inca nas underiaen numerous travels Utroudh Afghanistan ence th 10705, and wrtes inthis nue sot new school a lara A former AR Assistant Bator, be ithe Guardian's arehitette erie Fie ater book In agntand Journey to India’s Forgotten Pantin Mark Lamar — so vist the Word Trade Center memortl for tha ieene ra New York base ‘ehltectural historian, journalist and ertc whois arrenily writing biography of Philp Johnson ‘Andrew Mead gave up his ob as reviowsoditor af The drehitet' Journal to travel nore wily, purdcolany in Rngland and Tay. Hore he takes a Took t he uniqae urban etng of Sabbioneta Jeremy Matta rports from this sears Alvar Aalto ‘onferene; be coincidentally sit on the comitioe ‘voted to restoring Aalto ear mastarpince, the Vilport Library, inthe now Russa city oF Yybare Farha Moose 20 to fo as one half of Foreign Office Architects. She has just lanched her own exeting new practi, Farshid Mousa ‘Arohtectre, and contios her rows profesor inprectioe at Harvard. She joins the AR asa reguar cots, Weleome Farsi Declan Wels tis month's Hxplorine so ‘correspondent: an Tih-born, London base photographer and weitor who “uses the goographie Aistance to explore his relationship with the politica and altura landscape of his homeland? Oveliceman i 1 practising architec ving and ‘orking in Corbridge, howe frthcomag 0k PMlondhropy and Ligh CarngieLibraien ‘and the Advent of Transat Standards Jor Pub Space lb poised in Ap ‘Sho vies in thin and th nest sue on bares Deters auntie athe flee of Tory Petton Seis cofounder of the London haved practice DSDHA and diploma nit master at London ‘Metropolitan Tver, She recently took hor stents to study Soft in Now Yor, the bjt of her ok rein Anthony Vier sed urhlioture at Cambridge (with Colin Howe and Sandy Wilson). Ho now Deda af ts rin 8 Chanin Schoo of Architect, at Now York's Cooper Unio. prolife author om [rohtectae from the 18th century to ee present, hb is earetly working oma history of arehifectare since 1085. He writes Part Io i elony om The ‘Trouble with Tory in this month's ey tetion ‘THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW Eorronuat ‘SUBSCRIPTIONS AND cae BACKISSUES. Bites Plae rat sara raciiae | Seino ska! 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