43


the fullness of the site. Te earth has longevity, the surface history we have is only one plane out of a depth. To do a building you need the whole depth.


Te people who are walking through the site


today and talking about it may not be the true stakeholders of the site. Instead, the people who have been displaced from the site and buried far away may be the true voices of the site. Tere is always something concealed, and in order to do the project, you have to un-conceal or unfold it through whatever technique you have. I‘ve taken this approach from the very beginning. On the competition site visit for my first building, the Jewish Museum Berlin, everyone was running around the site with cameras and notebooks taking photos and making notes. But I didn’t. I just wanted to immerse myself in that particular piece of Berlin’s history. At the World Trade Center, I didn’t start with the developmental plans or complex technical issues, but with the story of those who were killed there. And somehow, by digging deeply into that history, that’s how my whole thinking was shaped.


5 Architecture is not just the sum of the buildings, but the para-architectural components that create the building It’s the sound, music, literature, philosophy, culture – all are part of the invisible structure of the building. With any project, you have to struggle to get to grips with what this is. Every building has its own sound. Specifically in the Jewish Museum Berlin, it’s the sound of echoing footsteps across the bridges of the void that runs through the centre of the building. Here, my idea was to complete the incomplete opera of Moses and Aaron by Arnold Schönberg, who had to leave Berlin before finishing the third act.


6 Winning a competition is usually a ticket to oblivion Just because a jury selects you, it doesn’t mean anything. To build a building with the cultural importance of the Jewish Museum Berlin is a struggle on a totally different level. It involves your whole life. It was many years before the building could emerge through the political process.


7 Architecture is not a field for pessimists If you’re a general, or a politician or an economist, you can be a pessimist. But never in architecture. To create anything, even a modest one-storey building, you need to lay a foundation for the future of that space. Architecture is an affirmative art that affirms the future in the very process of making it. It’s the only profession for optimists.


8 Architecture to me is a spiritual art It appears to be very pragmatic with a lot of calculations. But actually, despite its heavy


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117