In-Between Spaces

Daniel Libeskind latest collaboration with Berlin's Jewish Museum takes the shape of the Academy, a 2,300-square-metre, one-story volume standing on the site of Berlin's one-time flower market, whose shell undergirds the new structure. Located across from the museum, the Academy brings together its library, archives and education centre and offers additional office, storage and support space for the museum.

The architect had previously collaborated with the institution on the design of its 2001 extension, which has become a landmark in the city. Since the Jewish Museum's re-opening that year, its public and educational programs have more than doubled. The new Academy will house these programs as well as symposia, conferences, lectures and seminars, alongside hosting the museum's library and archives.

Libeskind's design for the Academy seeks to link the building to the museum's other structures and open spaces both thematically and structurally. A large downward-thrusting cube bursts through the façade, echoing the architect's 2001 extension. The shape is also a variation on a theme that Libeskind also explores in his Garden of Exile and Glass Courtyard, which he also designed for the museum.

After passing through the large gash in the cube that serves as the Academy's entrance, visitors enter a transitional space where two more large cubes are thrust forward at odd angles, housing the library and the auditorium. The volume, which Libeskind calls In-Between Spaces, alludes to the different perspectives that the space offers. Here, the architect sought to create an ideal place for visitors to reflect on the museum's larger purpose and their own experience of it.