Jewish Architecture

[Dan Dare]

Is there really such a thing? And if we see it, can we recognise it as such, and can we readily identify its principal characteristics?

I propose that the answer to both questions is yes. In architecture, as in music, painting, and sculpture the principal characteristic of the Jewish contribution to western civilisation is its emphasis on dissonance as opposed to harmonious expression.

In this thread, I'd like to focus on architecture, and on examples of buildings that can be readily identified as being specifically Jewish. I'll start off with an example that sprung up in my home town of Manchester, almost to the complete surprise of the local inhabitants.

This is Daniel Libeskind's design for the Imperial War Museum (North).




According to the official blurb on Libeskind's website:

...The building is a constellation composed of three interlocking shards. The Earth Shard forms the generous and flexible museum space. It signifies the open, earthly realm of conflict and war. The Air Shard with its projected images, observatory and education spaces, serves as a dramatic entry into the Museum. The Water Shard forms the platform for viewing the Canal with its restaurant, cafe, deck and performance space. These three shards together: Earth, Air and Water concretise Twentieth century conflicts which has never taken place on an abstract piece of paper, but has been fought on dramatic terrain by the infantry, in the skies by the airforce and battled with ships in the sea.

That's all very well, but the reality is that the building as a museum is almost completely useless. All the exhibits are grouped on a very cramped single floor, the so-called Air Shard (the big spiky comb thing on top) is completely empty and the Water Shard only houses a dark and cramped cafe and the ubiquitous gift shop.

And oh yes, a large of the actual exhibit space is devoted to a sizeable H-exhibit, complete with concentration camp uniforms and other H-paraphenalia as well as the usual horrific photographs. Exactly what this has to do with Britain's Imperial Wars is not made immediately apparent. Little wonder that even Britain's notoriously right-on Lottery Commission felt compelled to withdraw its funding for Libeskind's 'masterwork', with the predictable consequence that the end-result is poorly built and likely to become a blight on the local landscape in the not too distant future. The locals hate it with a passion, and cannot wait for it be pulled down.

Suffice to say, anyone who may be inclined to take the trouble to travel to Manchester to visit the IWM (North) would be well advised to save his time and money by visiting instead the original (non-Jewish) IWM in London, depicted here:

[Daniel Shays]

Walt Disney concerthall:

http://www.studio-international.co.u...ey_hall_5b.jpg

Guggenheim:

http://cv.uoc.es/~991_04_005_01_web/...guggenheim.jpg

"dancing house":

http://abanades.addr.com/0208-%20Pra...ncingHouse.jpg
http://images.forbes.com/images/2001...el_400_254.jpg

Model for Holocaust museum in Israel:

http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200408.JPG

Experience Music Project; Seattle, WA :

















[/quote]

[Daniel Shays]

Greenberg adheres to classical European styles of architecture but offers some distinctly Jewish insight in this article.

Classical Training
A Conversation With Allan Greenberg
ARCHITECTURE
February 24, 2006

...


Q: In your book, "Architecture and Democracy: The Founding Fathers' Vision for America" (1999), and in your new book on the architectural legacy of the Constitution, slated to be published by Rizzoli this spring, you write about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the architecture of American democracy. Is your interest in that topic related to your experience as an immigrant?

A: Yes, there's no doubt. No doubt about it. And it has a particular dimension that's relevant to Jewish history. In addition to my interest in Washington and Jefferson, I have a passionate interest in Puritan architecture. The Puritans thought of themselves as the new children of Israel, building the new promised land. Like all Protestants, they reached back not to the Latin Bible but to the original source, which was the Jewish Bible. They read Hebrew and knew that in Hebrew, buildings are named as houses. You say, beit hamidrash, study house, and beit din, judgment house. And that's where I believe the Puritans got their meetinghouse.

Q: Does that Hebrew-Puritan tradition inform American democracy today?

A: We are unique in having every building have the suffix "house." We have courthouse, statehouse, jailhouse, firehouse. In England, you have fire station, police station, law court. I thought a great deal about the significance of "house," the ordinary citizen's house, being the equivalent of the king's palace in Europe. For the first time in the history of architecture, the ordinary person's house became a work of architecture. One part of that idea is Jewish, and a part of the Puritan bequest to what became the United States.

Q: Does the element of the Hebrew Bible that privileges houses over palaces resonate with your experience of the Jewish community?

A: No, I don't think so. It's an idea that resonates with people who are interested in American history, resonates both to the extreme left and the extreme right. But I don't know that this Jewish connection, which meant a lot to me, really is understood by the Jewish community. They tend to be very inwardly focused, and I don't think they're quite aware of some of the resonance this may have had, particularly in the Protestant community.

Q: What about Jewish architecture? Is there such a thing?

A: I don't think so. During the Diaspora, Jews built like the locals did. So we have this eclectic tradition of building. But I think there is some deep element of skepticism in the Jewish people, about the notion of beauty in buildings, beautiful things, admiring artifacts, as worshipping of a false God. I think there's a kind of deep ambivalence.

...

Q: Do you think there are any great Jewish buildings?

A: I think that the Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I., is maybe the most beautiful synagogue in the history of the Jewish people. I can't believe the Temple was ever as beautiful as that building. In the greatest religious buildings — the Touro Synagogue, the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe — the architecture embodied the liturgy. Whatever was beautiful came out of that embodiment.

*Ed note, This is the Touro Synagogue, the "most beautiful synagogue in the history of the Jewish people": This looks like a regular house in New England.

Q: That seems to be a guiding principle in your work: Buildings are great when they embody an idea. What about the Holocaust memorial you proposed for Battery Park? What idea does that embody?

A: I created an arch, and its keystone is the law, the Torah — a physical reminder that the law triumphed. This is what Hitler wanted to eradicate. It wasn't only Jewish people he wanted to kill, it was the law that Jews revered that he wanted to eradicate, because it stood for some heart of civilization that stood in his way, and for him that was the most important job he did. And he failed. This is the triumph of Jewish law.

Q: Israel is always looking for a way to embody Jewish law in buildings. What do you think of the Jerusalem law that all new construction must be made of Jerusalem stone?

A: I think not losing contact with your vernacular tradition is very important. I think it's important here, as well, to be contextual.

Q: Last month, Palestine held democratic elections and Hamas won. Creating contextual architecture in democratic Palestine seems like a challenge. What kind of buildings should Palestine build to house its new democracy?

A: I don't know. I don't look for work overseas, I just want to work in America. Or if I had to work overseas, I could imagine England as the only place I might feel at home enough to work in. But I've often wondered what I would do if I were a German architect, or a French architect. For the Germans, the past is the Nazis; for the French, you have monarchies, the chaos of the French Revolution. If you want to create a democratic government, what's your reference? In America and in England, the evolution to democracy was so gradual; our connection to the past is seamless.

Q: What about South Africa, where you grew up? South Africa's connection to the past is anything but seamless.

A: I left South Africa when it was a very different place. Nelson Mandela had just gone to prison. Until two years before I left, blacks were admitted to the university I went to, and they were subsequently excluded. I despaired of anything coming out of there when in my army service I realized we were being trained to kill blacks, not to fight World War III. [Much to his disappointment, as he'd rather kill Germans than help protect his country of residence from criminals, tribal wars, and SWAPO] I had to get out. So I don't know. It's been so hard establishing myself here that I hardly thought about anything other than succeeding. And I fell in love with the United States. I've never thought of going anywhere else.

[Fade the Butcher]

Dan,

You should start a Jewish music thread.

[Dan Dare]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Dan,

You should start a Jewish music thread.

I’ll give it some thought, there is certainly much to ponder on there. But in the meantime let’s continue along the current track.

I hope this won’t seem to be developing into a purely anti-Libeskind rant, although he is an exceptionally soft target, and in many respects encapulates the very essence of architectural values as viewed through the prism of Jewish sensibility.

We saw above the monstrous carbuncle that Libeskind has foisted upon the gentle-folk of Manchester, so now let’s review his contribution to architectural heritage of the city of Berlin.

The building itself is described as “... a lightning bolt striking the city of Berlin. Daniel Libeskind, the architect, likens it to a deconstructed star of David.

The Libeskind building is formed of two main lines: the line of connection, tortuous and infinite, symbolises the cultural exchange between Jews and Gentiles and their mutual influences; a second line, straight but broken into discrete fragments, runs through the length of the house - it is the line of the void.”

This is the façade of Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, trademark features are prominent.



This view shows the so-called ‘Ground-plan’ of the Museum, and what is immediately apparent is that the building has been cynically placed in the middle of a residential area.



Before we leave Libeskind, it may be worth exploring a couple of instances in which he was invited to present proposals for new buildings but in which, Gott sei dank, wiser counsels eventually prevailed.

The first, which may be the more familiar to most readers, is the Libeskind’s proposal for a new building to replace the twin towers destroyed on 9/11, the so-called ‘Freedom Tower’:



Phew, that was a lucky escape. Londoners too can thanks their lucky stars that Libeskind’s design for the extension to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which amongst things houses treasures such as Canova’s Three Graces and the Great Bed of Ware was kyboshed thanks mainly to the public outcry created by local residents. This is the atrocity that Libeskind planned to foist on the unsuspecting British public with the apparent connivance of the metropolitan elites:




Sorry to say, the good folk in the PRC don’t appear to have got off quite so lightly. It may or not be totally coincidental that Mrs. Nina Libeskind is the daughter of a prominent Canadian politician, but be that as it may, Libeskind’s extension to the Royal Ontario Museum is scheduled for completion in late 2006.

Enjoy up there!

[Winston]

I actually didn't mind the 'Freedom Tower'. I think it works in it's surroundings, unlike any of his other works, and in fact his style seems to come into it's own when stretched out into a tall tower.

[Sulla the Dictator]

What a ridiculous thread.

[Sulla the Dictator]

This is an interesting piece of modern architecture, as a representation of the Colosseum:

[Scryllak]

Originally Posted by integrity

I actually didn't mind the 'Freedom Tower'. I think it works in it's surroundings, unlike any of his other works, and in fact his style seems to come into it's own when stretched out into a tall tower.

I agree.

I particularly liked this concept shot:




I'm not sure if the "shaft of light" idea is still being pursued, but as a concept I find it downright beautiful.

[Aryan Imperium]

Originally Posted by Dan Dare

Is there really such a thing? And if we see it, can we recognise it as such, and can we readily identify its principal characteristics?

I propose that the answer to both questions is yes. In architecture, as in music, painting, and sculpture the principal characteristic of the Jewish contribution to western civilisation is its emphasis on dissonance as opposed to harmonious expression.

In this thread, I'd like to focus on architecture, and on examples of buildings that can be readily identified as being specifically Jewish. I'll start off with an example that sprung up in my home town of Manchester, almost to the complete surprise of the local inhabitants.

This is Daniel Libeskind's design for the Imperial War Museum (North).




According to the official blurb on Libeskind's website:



That's all very well, but the reality is that the building as a museum is almost completely useless. All the exhibits are grouped on a very cramped single floor, the so-called Air Shard (the big spiky comb thing on top) is completely empty and the Water Shard only houses a dark and cramped cafe and the ubiquitous gift shop.

And oh yes, a large of the actual exhibit space is devoted to a sizeable H-exhibit, complete with concentration camp uniforms and other H-paraphenalia as well as the usual horrific photographs. Exactly what this has to do with Britain's Imperial Wars is not made immediately apparent. Little wonder that even Britain's notoriously right-on Lottery Commission felt compelled to withdraw its funding for Libeskind's 'masterwork', with the predictable consequence that the end-result is poorly built and likely to become a blight on the local landscape in the not too distant future. The locals hate it with a passion, and cannot wait for it be pulled down.

Suffice to say, anyone who may be inclined to take the trouble to travel to Manchester to visit the IWM (North) would be well advised to save his time and money by visiting instead the original (non-Jewish) IWM in London, depicted here:

The Jew`s influence in architecture and art in general can always be associated with degeneracy.
Find a degenerate piece of `art` and you will almost always find a Jewish instigator.