DANIEL LIBESKINDPresented by : Tanveer Alam, B.Arch. Final Year 2014-15

Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish-American architect, artist, professor and setdesigner of Polish Jewish descent.

Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 withhis wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect.

Libeskind's work has been exhibited in major museumsand galleries around the world, including the Museumof Modern Art, the Bauhaus Archives, the Art Instituteof Chicago, and the Centre Pompidou.

Began his career as an architectural theorist andprofessor.

The Jewish Museum Berlin, completed in 1999, wasLibeskind's first major international success and was oneof the first buildings designed after reunification.

INTRODUCTION

Lot of architectural students (especially thepretentious ones), confuse the words‘philosophy’, ‘theory’ and ‘speculation’. For theGreeks, ‘philosophy’, was the “love ofknowledge’ and the result of an inquiry intouniversal truths. ‘Theory’ is the result of aninquiry of specific facts leading to the test of theresultant supposition. What most pretentiousarchitects (Daniel Libeskind is a good example),engage in is the more dubious practice of‘speculation’, as in - “Hey, I wonder what wouldhappen if I made a building look like a crystalrock formation?” Clearly this is often a verydumb approach to design, so they use big wordsto describe their speculations as either“theories’ or “philosophies’ to make them sound

better than they are.

As my aim is not to critique or appraise whatDaniel stands for but to discuss and analysewhat are the ideas behind his designs .

While doing research I came across manynegative articles about the work which hehas done, and somehow I was evenconvinced with the facts these articlesclaimed ,but at the very same moment itcame to if he is being critiqued ,then theremust be something which he did is great.

Finally ,I can only say that the projects whichare too powerful in terms of their philosophy,overpower the ideas and theories of theperson who designed it, be it and hencebecome the brand name od the designer.

Deconstruction Style

Layering AngularOrganic

(Curvilinear)Chaos

DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS - Classification

Definition: essentially consists of complicated composition of hybridvolumes with Acute angles.

Basic Shape

Fragmentation

Transformation

Recombining

DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS - angular

Lines: Almost Straight Non-parallel lines.

DENVER ART MUSEUM-

Colorado, USA

Corners: Acute angles.

Appearance of Original Basic Volumes: Disappear.

Articulation: through relation between Masses. Openings: Mainly by Subtraction .

PALAZZO DELL’EDILIZIA OF

ALESSANDRIA, Alessandria, Italy

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

Toronto, Canada

The Villa - Libeskind Signature

Series

JEWISH MUSEUM -BERLIN