Archinect - News

Royal Ontario Museum unveils renovation design by Hariri Pontarini Architects

2024-02-14T19:50:00-05:00

Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum has unveiled plans for a renovation of its Daniel Libeskind-designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal expansion, which opened in 2008. Led by Canadian firm Hariri Pontarini Architects, the OpenROM project is being enacted to expand its public offerings to an anticipated 1.4 million visitors annually.

The brief calls for a reconfiguration of its main floor, plus the addition of upper-level gallery spaces and the reimagining of an existing entrance on Bloor Street. A new water feature will be added to the heritage facade surrounding the building on Bloor Street and Queen’s Park, punctuated by a cantilevered bronze canopy. A total of 4,000 square feet of programmable public spaces will be added through the overall design.

Image courtesy Hariri Pontarini Architects

Also part of the project is the addition of a four-story atrium called The Hennick Commons. The atrium will be serviced by a multi-level adjacent lily pad feature staircase replete with viewing platform...

Studio Libeskind completes new Maggie's Centre design in London

2024-02-05T18:57:00-05:00

Studio Libeskind has completed work on its design for a new Maggie’s Centre cancer treatment facility at the Royal Free Hospital in north London.

The 4,886-square-foot design follows well-known contributions from Foster + Partners, Steven Holl, and Heatherwick Studio as an example of its client’s mission to provide patients with world-class settings in which to receive their care. The project is now the 24th Maggie’s Centre completed in the UK since 1996.

Photo: Hufton + Crow

The studio says its design is arranged for the free-flowing movement of patients and their caretakers while giving equal consideration to the needs for both privacy and socialization.

Photo: Hufton + Crow

In terms of building form, the Centre is curvilinear in contrast with the surrounding brick-and-mortar buildings on the NHS campus. The design was realized on a small plot that was once a parking lot. As such, its volume expands upwards from the ground floor clad in weathered timber panels and sheathed in glaz...

Studio Libeskind unveils preliminary design for Tree of Life synagogue shooting memorial in Pittsburgh

2023-12-08T15:16:00-05:00

Preliminary designs for Studio Libeskind’s long-awaited 10/27 Memorial at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh have officially been announced following a sensitive design consultation with families of the victims of the tragic 2018 mass shooting that left eleven worshipers dead and six more injured.

“The journey to unveiling the preliminary memorial designs has been a long and emotional one, but I am grateful for a process that prioritized our hopes that our loved ones are remembered for how they lived, not solely for how they were murdered,” said Diane Rosenthal, a member of the Memorialization Working Group who lost two siblings in the attack, which stands as the deadliest antisemitic hate incident in American history.

A March 2022 rendering of the Tree of Life project depicting the expanded building. Image: Studio Libeskind

The group, which represents all three congregations included within the 70-year-old synagogue, was also able to visit the memorial to passengers of Flight ...

Daniel Libeskind completes senior housing development on Long Island

2023-09-20T17:59:00-04:00

Studio Libeskind has shared photos of its recently completed senior housing project on Long Island.

Located in the village of Freeport in Nassau County, the new Allan and Geraldine Rosenberg Residence holds a total of 45 units reserved for residents aged 55 and older, along with a selection of on-site supportive services and other amenities meant to improve its users' quality of life and ability to age in place as part of the state’s larger $25 billion push to create 100,000 units of affordable housing.

Declaring “Senior housing isn’t just about accommodation; it’s about people. It’s about creating a residence where residents can feel happy, secure, and emotionally connected to their neighbors,” the studio’s founder was joined by New York Governor Kathy Hochul for this week’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. The project reserves a total of 30% of the apartments for disabled and formerly homeless seniors, and sustainability is ensured thanks to rainwater collection, efficient HVAC, and all-e...

Daniel Libeskind toasts Hennessy's namesake with new crystal decanter design

2022-03-10T12:04:00-05:00

A celebration was on hand Tuesday night for the legendary French label Hennessy as it joined with Daniel Libeskind to unveil the architect’s newly re-designed Richard cognac decanter in tribute to the brand’s namesake and founder Richard Hennessy.

A host of Hollywood A-listers including Naomi Watts and Henry Golding joined the architect and Hennessy master blender Renaud Fillioux de Gironde for a cocktail party at a private location in Brooklyn.

Image courtesy Hennessy

The Baccarat crystal decanter is topped by an arrow and holds within it the rarest blend of cognac that Hennessy has ever made. With the addition of his collaboration with the 257-year-old house to a list of works that includes a recent ice hockey arena in Finland and the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Libeskind now joins rank with Frank Gehry, who designed his own signature decanter for the label in 2020.

Image courtesy Hennessy

Hennessy says the new decanter is in keeping with L...

Studio Libeskind’s Nokia Arena takes center ice in Finland

2021-12-16T13:13:00-05:00

An exciting new development is coming to one of the Nordic region’s most up-and-coming small cities as Studio Daniel Libeskind gets set to drop the puck tomorrow on a new ice hockey arena in Tampere, Finland.

Located along the intersection of a downtown railway axis, the mixed-use development also features hotel accommodations along with five residential towers meant to activate a downtown core that the firm characterizes as “the epitome of a thriving European City.”

Photo © Hufton+Crow

The 17,000-seat arena includes a casino and restaurant topped off by the hotel area and three luxurious rooftop saunas. Its curvilinear envelope suggests the speed and exhilaration of an attacking hockey forward on the power play, with variable cladding that breaks up the mass perfectly, culminating in a glass facade at ground level to meet both visitors and the city in the center of a well-organized urban scale development.

Photo © Hufton+Crow

“The Nokia Arena creates a new landmark for the city with ...

Daniel Libeskind designs a new mixed-use complex at the heart of Germany’s film industry

2021-11-16T15:11:00-05:00

Following up on recent superlative creations in Poland, Kenya, and Chile, Studio Daniel Libeskind is back with a proposed design that would bring a new media arts complex to the German city of Potsdam, just south of Berlin.

Developer Jan Kretzschmar tapped the firm to create a filmmaking-inspired five-building program in what has been considered the epicenter of the German entertainment industry.

Per the architect: “The design concept is focused on creating human-scaled buildings that encourage community and flexible office and public spaces throughout. The design proposes a 66-meter-high (217 feet) circular office tower that anchors four lower-rise arc buildings of 44 and 22 meters. The lower, wider buildings are to be built at the front of the street, with the higher tower set back from the street creating more open space.”

Image © Studio Daniel Libeskind

Spread out across an unused 94,000-square-meter (about 1 million square feet) site in the historic Babelsberg district of Potsd...

Check out the newest photos of the Denver Art Museum expansion ahead of its weekend reopening

2021-10-22T17:06:00-04:00

The wait is over at one of the most important synoptic collections in the western U.S. As part of a 50th-anniversary celebration of its iconic Gio Ponti building, the Denver Art Museum (DAM) will officially reopen on Sunday following a four-year $150 million facelift and campus expansion by Machado Silvetti and Fentress Architects.

Kemper Courtyard at the Denver Art Museum. Photo by James Florio Photography, courtesy of the Denver Art Museum.

The expansion was necessary to unify the Golden Triangle campus. A new welcoming center is combined with the Hamilton Building designed by Daniel Libeskind to form a less “standoffish” offering for a visitorship that has nearly doubled in the past ten years.

Revitalized Gio Ponti tube entrance into the Martin Building. Photo by James Florio Photography, courtesy of the Denver Art Museum.

The upgrade plan has emphasized increased space for the public alongside a corrected program which had to be rearranged after the introduction of Libeskind’s bu...

The full weight of history: Daniel Libeskind's brick memorial to Dutch Holocaust victims opens Sunday

2021-09-17T17:12:00-04:00

Daniel Libeskind will have the memory of an entire lost city on his mind at Sunday’s official unveiling ceremony of the National Holocaust Memorial of Names in Amsterdam.

“I grew up in Poland in Lodz, a city that had hundreds of thousands of Jews. There was nobody Jewish left. It taught that you should never give in to authoritarianism. You should never bow your head to fear,” the 74-year-old architect said in a recent interview about his forthcoming memorial for the victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018.

Image courtesy Studio Daniel Libeskind © Kees Hummel.

Libeskind took the memory of his birth city into his design for the Jewish Museum in Berlin, one of the architect’s first major commissions when it opened in 2001.

Image courtesy Studio Daniel Libeskind © Kees Hummel.

Now, 20 years later, Libeskind’s latest project pays tribute to the memory of the Dutch Jewish, Roma, and Sinti populations that fell victim to the Holocaust.

Image courtesy Studio Da...

Daniel Libeskind selected for renovation of Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue, site of 2018 mass shooting

2021-05-04T13:25:00-04:00

Daniel Libeskind, an architect known for memorializing historical trauma, will turn the site of 11 deaths back into a home for worship as well as a place to learn about confronting hatred.

In the wake of the October 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that left eleven worshipers dead and six more injured, the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation was faced with a long internal discussion about the future of its building. This week, the synagogue's leadership announced the selection of New York architect Daniel Libeskind, a son of Polish Holocaust survivors himself, to lead the renovation effort of the campus.

As the New York Times reports, the initiative will also create classrooms, a communal space, a Hall of Memories dedicated to the 2018 attack as well as spaces for exhibitions and public programs of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

"We must return," the paper quotes Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life. "If we don’t, we give the message that evil won."

Daniel Libeskind designs Łódź Architecture Center in his native hometown

2021-04-21T19:24:00-04:00

Daniel Libeskind will be returning to his native hometown of Łódź, Poland, to create a series of cultural hubs throughout the city.

Dubbed Nexus21, the program features 21 unique interventions — ranging from buildings to urban spaces — to invigorate select neighborhoods spots, spur economic development, and pay tribute to the city's cultural, historical, and industrial heritage including architecture, textiles, fashion, and film.

Łódź Architecture Center, exterior. Image: Studio Libeskind.

"The 21 sites, mostly empty blocks and derelict structures, will be revitalized to create point investments that amplify the character and functionality of each site," explains the project description. "The plan targets the spaces in between buildings within the center of the urban plan to create a vibrant nexus between the old and the new while adding value to the historic neighborhoods of Łódź. The aim is to create a chain reaction of development across the city that enriches the public realm."

...

Cooper Union opens access to database of student work dating back to the 1930s

2019-12-03T09:30:00-05:00

The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union in New York City has unveiled The Student Work Collection, a new online resource that highlights nearly 80 years' worth of architectural output with the aim of recording the "School of Architecture's pedagogy by documenting student work."

The comprehensive archival project includes over 4,000 student projects that are catalogued by student and and instructor names, as well as by course number, semester, decade, and design problem, among other topics. The collection provides a deep view into the early pen-on-vellum work of now-famous architects like Daniel Libeskind (class of 1970), Liz Diller (class of 1979), and others. The archive also offers a more complex perspective of the educational efforts of prominent architectural educators and theorists, including John Hejduk, Peter Eisenman, Toshiko Mori, Lebbeus Woods, and others.

Homepage of The Student Work Collection. Image courtesy of Cooper Union.

According to the site...

Daniel Libeskind designs new exhibition at Auschwitz-Birkenau

2019-05-23T16:02:00-04:00

Daniel Libeskind, the architect famous for the Jewish Museum Berlin, has added another holocaust memorial project to European soil.

Rendering of 'Through the Lens of Faith,' by Daniel Libeskind

On July 1st, Libeskind will present a new temporary exhibition at Auschwitz-Birkenau, perhaps the most infamous concentration camp used during World War II. Titled 'Through the Lens of Faith,' Libeskind designed a corridor-like structure adjacent to Auschwitz's main gate, complete with portraits of Auschwitz survivors taken by photographer Caryl Englander. Photos of the survivors are accompanied by text descriptions of how faith was critical to their survival during their time in Auschwitz.

Rendering of 'Through the Lens of Faith,' by Daniel Libeskind

Libeskind's design for the exhibition is uncharacteristically restrained, allowing visitors to focus less on his design than on the portraits of the survivors and the stories they share in text.

First glimpse of Daniel Libeskind's design for Ngaren: Museum of Humankind in Kenya

2019-05-14T17:12:00-04:00

Studio Libeskind unveiled their design for the proposed Ngaren: Museum of Humankind in Loodariak, Kenya. Commissioned by Dr. Richard Leakey, a renowned Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and politician, the museum will be the first center of its kind that is dedicated to the research, discovery, and exploration of over 2 million years of human history. It'll also showcase Dr. Leakey's life work of fossil discoveries that have helped reveal the history of human evolution.

Working with local Kenyan architects, Studio Libeskind is overseeing the design and construction of Ngaren. The museum will emerge from within the dramatic landscape of Rift Valley, where Kamoya Kimeu — a member of a team led by Dr. Leakey — first made the significant discovery of Turkana Boy, which is the most complete early-human skeleton ever found by far.

Image courtesy of Studio Daniel Libeskind.

Described by Studio Libeskind as a vertical stalactite, the museu...

Studio Libeskind to redesign Museo Regional de Tarapacá for Chile's Regional Anthropological Museum of Iquique

2019-03-21T19:46:00-04:00

Studio Daniel Libeskind released a few images of their proposed design of the new Museo Regional de Tarapacá for the Regional Anthropological Museum of Iquique in northern Chile. The project is part of a larger development plan led by Mayor Mauricio Soria Macchiavello and his team.

Dubbed by the studio as “El Dragon de Tarapacá”, the new 3,760m2 building will replace the old museum built in 1892, which can currently display only 20 percent of their collection. Featuring the signature sharp, angular forms of a Libeskind building, the new museum's design was inspired by the Atapaca Desert's stark landscape and Iquique's urban dune, the “Cerro Dragon”. Exhibitions in the new building will display 6,000 years of northern Chilean history.

Courtesy of Studio Libeskind.

A sloped garden will lead up to the building's entrance hall, which will be topped by a cafe that overlooks the Southern coastline. Three pairs of parallel vertical walls shape the major space...

Studio Daniel Libeskind's MO Modern Art Museum in Vilnius opens to the public

2018-10-18T02:00:00-04:00

The Studio Daniel Libeskind-designed MO Modern Art Museum in central Vilnius opened its doors to the public today. At 3,100 m2, the building — which is also Lithuania's largest private museum — houses nearly 5,000 never-before-seen works by Lithuanian artists from the mid-20th century to the present. Studio Libeskind teamed up with locally based Do Architects and Baltic Engineers for the project.

Located in historic Vilnius, the museum's design pays tribute to its past and present. Its rectilinear exterior facade is clad in luminous white plaster as a reference to local materials in the city, according to Studio Libeskind. The minimalist facade is contrasted with a dramatic open staircase that intersects the building on a diagonal axis.

Photo © Norbert Tukaj.

Photo © Hufton + Crow.

The staircase leads to a stepped open-air terraced roof that serves as a gathering space for public performances and events. A 5-meter fully glazed, cantilevered wall provides views o...

Daniel Libeskind tells the NYT what he would do on the Moon if brought along on SpaceX

2018-09-26T13:22:00-04:00

Last week saw the announcement by Elon Musk that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa would be the first private passenger aboard the Tesla CEO's Big Falcon Rocket. Alongside, it was also suggested that Maezawa would invite a group of artists to come along on his trip to the moon, expected to launch in 2023.

The proposal, which asks the visionary space travelers to create something after they return to Earth, has led to much speculation about whom might be chosen, and what might they create. Curious as well, the New York Times asked eight artists to put together some pitches of their own.

Among the speculative projects is a very bold bid by Daniel Libeskind to transform the moon into a perfect square. The Polish-American architect told the NYT:

I like that this project is about art rather than science. So my proposal is to turn the moon itself into an art project: It’s a sphere and I want to turn it into a perfect square. That’s the dream.

My son Noam is an astrophysicist at the L...

Daniel Libeskind gets to design the new Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Star

2018-05-17T14:02:00-04:00

Many big-name architects enjoy dabbling in product design and use their brand recognition to sell chairs, tableware, shoes, and anything in-between—but getting to design the new star topping the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City is one of the rarer commissions. Daniel Libeskind was just tapped by Swarovski to create a replacement for the current star the crystal company had first unveiled in 2004.

Daniel Libeskind and Nadja Swarovski. Image courtesy of Swarovski.

While designs for the new tree topper aren't available yet, an initial release announced a three-dimensional structure "radiant with light," inspired by the cosmos, and exemplifying Libeskind's trademark dramatic architectural lines.

"The new Swarovski Star for the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is inspired by the beauty of starlight–something that radiates meaning and mystery into the world," Libeskind hinted at his inspiration. "The Star is a symbol that represents our greatest ambitions for hope, unity...

Daniel Libeskind tower to be unveiled during Venice Architecture Biennale

2018-04-10T14:21:00-04:00

As part of ECC's Time-Space-Existence exhibition during the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, Daniel Libeskind will be unveiling a new architectural sculpture that explores the connections between climate, time, space and existence. Facing Gaia, as it is called, is inspired by ancient forms and will feature a convex mirrored center, bound to its steel structure with pioneering GRIP Metal™ technology.

Facing Gaia. Sketch by Daniel Libeskind.

“The Biennale is an important opportunity to explore meaning and metaphor in architectural space and form,” said the seminal architect. “This moment in time, the very idea of human existence is in question. What is the future of technology? Nature? Humanity? Facing Gaia focuses on the tension of these relationships while inviting open-ended questions and interaction,” he added.

Jewish Museum Berlin © Hufton+Crow

Born in Lód’z, Poland, in 1946, Libeskind immigrated to the United States as a teenager. St...

Daniel Libeskind’s first New York City building may be affordable senior housing in Brooklyn

2018-03-29T13:16:00-04:00

Though he's called New York home for decades, Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind has yet to see a NYC building to completion. But it appears that will soon change with his first ground-up building, a 197-unit affordable housing project on the Sumner Houses in Bed-Stuy. A January press release credits Studio Daniel Libeskind as the designer of the 10-story building-to-be, and a rendering shows an angular white-colored building done in the firm’s signature un-orthogonal style.

New photographs show Daniel Libeskind's National Holocaust Monument in greater detail

2017-10-11T20:11:00-04:00

A new set of photographs of the recently opened Canadian National Holocaust Monument have been released and help give a better understanding of the Daniel Libeskind-designed space: how it sits in its surrounding landscape created by Claude Cormier, and what atmosphere the large-scale, photographic landscapes by Edward Burtynsky create inside the fortress-like exposed concrete structure.

We were able to publish an initial, limited set of images a few days ago, shortly after the monument opened, and it managed — not entirely unusual for a Libeskind project — to spark first reader comments.

For a more detailed project description click here; scroll down to see the new photographs of the monument.

All photographs courtesy of Studio Libeskind.

First photos of Daniel Libeskind's newly opened National Holocaust Monument

2017-10-02T16:13:00-04:00

Last week we mentioned the Canadian National Holocaust Monument celebrating its grand opening in Ottawa. The stock of available imagery has been very limited for the last years and consisted of mostly the same aerial rendering in a few variations.

Now we've received new photographs that give a better understanding of the completed monument design — a collaboration between Studio Libeskind, Lord Cultural Resources, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, Montreal-based landscape architect Claude Cormier, and holocaust scholar Doris Bergman.

"This monument not only creates a very important public space for the remembrance of those who were murdered in the Holocaust," Daniel Libeskind said in a statement, "but it also serves as a constant reminder that today’s world is threatened by anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry. Canada has upheld the fundamental democratic values of people regardless of race, class or creed, and this national monument is the expression of those principles and of ...

Libeskind-designed Canadian National Holocaust Monument opens in Ottawa

2017-09-27T14:30:00-04:00

Canada today (27 September) inaugurated its first national Holocaust Monument, in Ottawa, an endeavour ten years in the making. [...] The monument’s design and construction was a collaboration between the New York-based architect Daniel Libeskind, the Montreal-based landscape architect Claude Cormier, the Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky and the University of Toronto professor Doris Bergman, an expert on the Holocaust.

"From above, the monument is the shape of a skewed Star of David," The Art Newspaper writes, "which [...] recognises the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, but also other groups who were persecuted, such as homosexuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses."

Lev Libeskind produces a prefab home design for Revolution Precrafted

2017-06-19T15:36:00-04:00

Revolution Precrafted, a company launched by developer and art collector Robbie Antonio in 2015, aims to democratize architecture by offering affordable designs for prefab homes and pavilions from over 40 world-renown architects including Kengo Kuma, Jean Nouvel, Kravitz Design, Zaha Hadid Architects, Sou Fujimoto and many more.

One of the company's new collaborators is Lev Libeskind, son of the architect Daniel Libeskind, who has recently opened his own architectural and design practice in Milan, Italy.

The architect's design for Revolution Precrafted is designed to be compatible with any location and context.

Its modern form is based on a mathematical unfolding of irregular angles around a rectangular core. In combination with rich materials such as aluminum, natural stone, glass and resin the home is adaptable to just about any site or lifestyle.

Daniel Libeskind to design spiraling garden tower and new East Thiers Station in France

2017-03-23T18:36:00-04:00

It's a double-win for Studio Daniel Libeskind, who was recently selected to design two mixed-use projects in France: the Occitanie Tower in Toulouse and the East Thiers Train Station in Nice. The projects unveil a new development strategy for both cities that was set forth by commercial real estate firm Compagnie de Phalsbourg.

As Toulouse's first skyscraper, the Occitanie Tower will take over the former site of the Gare Matabiau postal sorting center in the city's evolving business district. The “curvaceous” tower will be a 150-meter-tall glass structure wrapped in a spiraling “ribbon” of vertical gardens (designed by landscape architect Nicolas Gilsoul) that will start from street level up to the 40th floor — a reference to the Canal du Midi that winds through the city, according to the architects.

Occitanie Tower, Toulouse. Rendering by MORPH.

Occitanie Tower, Toulouse. Rendering by LUXIGON.

The scheme includes 11,000 square meters of office space, a Hilton hotel, 120 apartment units...

Watch Daniel Libeskind speak of his love for NYC's diversity

2016-12-14T14:42:00-05:00

Daniel Libeskind loves the multi-faceted nature of New York City's inhabitants; the rich, the poor, the successful, and perhaps most amusingly, the failures who think they're successful. Although the architect doesn't really break any new conceptual ground in this short video from the Louisiana Channel, one can enjoy Libeskind's merry musings intercut with scenes of the metropolis and its diverse denizens, who form "a very complicated microcosm" of the world:

Daniel Libeskind to design shiny mixed-use building in Vilnius

2016-07-15T21:25:00-04:00

Daniel Libeskind is making his mark — in all its signature jagged, geometric wonder — throughout the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. In addition to the Modern Art Centre of Vilnius and the Vilnius Beacon sports and wellness center at the Liepkalnis ski resort, Studio Libeskind won the competition to design a new mixed-use building complex on Konstitucijos Avenue 18B. Libeskind's winning scheme is a progression of glassy volumes — with the tallest tower reaching 18-stories

Get a glimpse of their winning scheme on Bustler.

Daniel Libeskind turns 70; designs Musical Labyrinth for Frankfurt Opera

2016-05-12T13:29:00-04:00

Preparations are still running for various events around Daniel Libeskind's 70th birthday, among them the concert project "One Day in Life." Libeskind has designed the project for Frankfurt's Old Opera. A total of 75 concerts are to be given on May 21 and 22 at 18 different locations spread over the city of Frankfurt. Libeskind's idea was to bring music to places where hitherto no music had been played, for example hospitals, public baths or hidden bunkers.

Via @daniellibeskind on Instagram: "In Frankfurt installing the Musical Labyrinth for One Day in Life that opens May 20th. #onedayinlife"

Other recent Libeskind stories in the Archinect news:

"Architecture is a field of repression": Daniel Libeskind on childhood memories, trauma, and architecture

2015-11-19T17:05:00-05:00

"You repress almost everything to produce a building," states Daniel Libeskind during a long and wide-ranging conversation with the architectural historian Gillian Darley in the context of the exhibition Childhood ReCollections: Memory in Design at the Roca London Gallery.

"Everything is repressed because it has to fit into the context, it has to be stylized, it has to appeal to clients, it has to be normal," he contends. "But I always thought, try to show what has been repressed in architecture. It’s very difficult because people don’t like it."

Their conversation touches on a number of Libeskind's central concerns and makes frequent reference to both his biography and his oeuvre. Here are some of the highlights (check out the full video below):

On his childhood:

"I was lucky to have that experience of... the mythology of New York, which is arriving by boat as an immigrant. You know, woken up, 4 o’clock in the morning by my mother with my sister, go up, wake up, 'you’re going to see Ne...

Is "individual expression" in architecture at risk?

2015-08-31T15:28:00-04:00

From the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona to the Sydney Opera House, the world's most recognizable landmarks display the character of the people who created them, but can individuality in architecture stand up to increasing pressure from developers to deliver universally popular designs? ...Daniel Libeskind warns that his profession is currently battling against commoditization and a "design by committee" approach that devalues the architect's role.

CNN Style has made Daniel Libeskind a guest editor for a series of articles around the theme, "Architecture and Emotion." In this article, Alyn Griffiths takes a look at "individuality" in architecture, with a general presumption that it's under attack.

While beginning with the caveat that every building is the product of "many minds and hands," the article is primarily oriented around Libeskind's belief that buildings best "engage people's emotions... when the architect's own vision and feelings are expressed through the design."

It's a bit unclear how much Libeskind was involved with the article itself, although he's quoted early on in the piece. "Individual expression is what makes people different from other animals," claims Libeskind. "It's what defines us as a species and yet, increasingly, individuality is a dirty word in architecture."

These are strong biological and sociological claims – with little backing offered. But assumptions aside, is their some validity to concerns tha...