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PROJECT 3


ANOHA – The Children’s World of the Jewish Museum Berlin


Olson Kundig’s new museum for younger visitors takes the form of a wooden ark, telling an ancient story with a timeless message


WORDS BY SOPHIE TOLHURST


THE JEWISH MUSEUM BERLIN set up an international design competition in 2016, asking for a museum experience that would engage its younger visitors, in contrast with much of its other, emotionally heavy material. From 100 entries, Seattle-based architecture practice Olson Kundig was appointed. Olson Kundig’s winning concept was inspired by the flood narrative: not just that of Noah’s Ark, but of hundreds of other flood myths from cultures around the world. The practice’s proposal intended a modern reinterpretation of this timeless story of new beginnings, imbued with a sense of welcoming and acceptance; in turn, Olson Kundig explained, this was inspired by Germany’s acceptance of nearly one million refugees at the time.


The ANOHA experience takes the form of a wooden ark: not at sea, but sat within a much larger 1960s-era flower market hall. The ark has a circular form, which might take visitors by surprise; it was inspired by a story on an ancient Sumerian tablet that predates the Torah by a thousand years, but was only translated in the past decade. Contrasted with this ancient reference, the design team at Olson Kundig found a more recent one, in the striking Space Station V from Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey.


This circular form was in fact more apt for the non-linear museum journey Olson Kundig wanted to create. ‘A traditional ark is directional, with a distinct front and back and a rudder to guide exploration. The circular modern ark has no back or front; instead it is democratic and unbiased,’ explains Alan Maskin, design principal at Olson Kundig. The need for a modern ark seems worryingly close, as the practice points out, with the rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns brought about by climate change – even as I write this, there are devastating floods in New York, New Jersey and Louisiana in the US, Maharashtra in India,


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