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Pics of the cracks in eisenman's memorial in berlin

iaakuza

Some days ago i visited the Berlin Holocaust memorial designed by peter einsman, just few days after "der spiegel" talked about the 400 cracks in the concrete stelae. This project has had a lot of problems (ideologic, also an ex-nazi company was involved in the project... and now structural). I took some pics of these cracks

i send you the link, if u r interested:
http://iaakuza.blogspot.com/search/label/Eisenman

The stelae were produced near Berlin from very hard, grey-coloured, self-compacting concrete (a lot of seismic tests done) and it seems just vibrations from the new US embassy building and a suburban railway tunnel could have affected the site.
The cost was €14.8 million and now the firm that erected the memorial will carry out the repairs.

 
Aug 28, 07 10:23 am
simples

previously on the news here
http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=62412_0_24_0_C
which had a series of interesting comments to it (see link above)

back then, i wrote:
i think the memorial will be more successful as the concrete cracks, and continuous to change appearance to document time...the cynic idealist in me hopes that the cracks will not be fixed...

Aug 28, 07 10:44 am  · 
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eastcoastarch03

so it cracks, it is concrete

Aug 28, 07 10:56 am  · 
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"there is a crack in everything that's where the light comes in"
-leonard cohen

Aug 28, 07 11:18 am  · 
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iaakuza

beautiful quotation, orhan

Aug 28, 07 11:24 am  · 
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i agree with simples... i like the cracks...

Aug 28, 07 12:18 pm  · 
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drums please, Fab?

'I don’t do crack. I don’t do that. Crack is whack.'
-whitney houston

Aug 28, 07 12:20 pm  · 
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mdler

Orhan

I have loved that Cohen quote for a while, myself...

The thing about the Nazi contractors reminds me of a bit in Sara Silverman's 'Jesus is Magic' how she talks about all the Jews now drive Mercedes and the affiliation with the Nazis that the company had

Aug 28, 07 12:24 pm  · 
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oldenvirginia

Maybe Peter's been told too many times that the sun shines out of his crack

Aug 28, 07 1:05 pm  · 
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was this all another ploy by petey? I'll make sure that the mix of concrete is so hard its sure to crack after its initial hardening. Doesn't seem too far to me. Nonetheless cracks or otherwise they are a beautiful spectacle

Aug 28, 07 6:09 pm  · 
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snooker

Wondering what the freeze thaw cycles are like in Germany....These things will be but a vague reminder in another twenty years once water starts deep penetration.....they will be but a field of rubble once the penetration reaches the rebar....not a pretty sight or site however you want to look at it.

Aug 28, 07 6:43 pm  · 
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strlt_typ

deterioration of memory

Aug 28, 07 6:50 pm  · 
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larslarson

wasn't there also a number of complications in the fact that this
site is directly over goebbels bunker? and also not too far from
hitler's bunker as i recall. i believe both have been filled in now..
but at the time goebbels was still accessible.

could cracks be avoided here really? what material doesn't
deteriorate over time? what other material could have gotten
mr. e that monolithic appearance?..at least within any kind of a
budget?

when i was there in 2001 or so they were tearing off metal siding
off of liebskind's museum...is this monument getting vandalized
as well?

Aug 28, 07 6:57 pm  · 
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oldenvirginia

I do wish the design had planned for this... it would have been a beautiful spectacle to include a weathering process into the memorial. A kind of temporal link between the dead and those affected but still alive. To keep them as silent and static seems so cold and a little blunt.

Aug 28, 07 8:25 pm  · 
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WtfWtfWtf™

Concrete cracks....the cracks fill with dust and it will last a long time. It can now respond to dimensional instability/nature. Hopefully the reinforcing is S.S.....Rome is full of cracks, monuments typically are.....Stonehenge looks nothing like it used to, etc.

Aug 28, 07 9:26 pm  · 
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iaakuza

i agree with most of u... the cracks are part of the game.
What dammson wrote, "deterioration of memory" makes me think of a project/memorial/landart done by Alberto Burri in Italy
(today I posted something about it and your comments in
http://iaakuza.blogspot.com/)
It is like an immense sudarium created by artist Alberto Burri in the mid-80's, for the victims of an earthquake.
He covering the ruins of the town in concrete, leaving the shape of the buildings and the street plan intact.
you can search pics in flickr typing "burri ghibellina" or simpler "cretto".

Aug 29, 07 8:36 am  · 
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cityboy9

"First of all, let's get one thing straight. Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let's get that straight. Okay? We don't do crack. We don't do that. Crack is whack."

--Whitney Houston

Aug 29, 07 4:02 pm  · 
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eastcoastarch03

"the notrious B.I.G. once said, either you're slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot. i went the white boy way of slinging crack rock, i became a stock broker"

name the movie that came from

Aug 29, 07 4:06 pm  · 
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cityboy9

boiler room? i think....

Aug 29, 07 5:36 pm  · 
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eastcoastarch03

heck yeah cityboy9, that is correct

Aug 30, 07 1:38 pm  · 
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mauOne™
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9XA5Xb-ALk
Sep 1, 07 3:24 pm  · 
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vado retro

notorius big was not from the ghetto. his mom is a freaking school teacher.

Sep 1, 07 3:55 pm  · 
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ghetto is relative, often a phrase used to identify ones cultural ethos more than coming from a improvished inner city area

Sep 2, 07 2:40 pm  · 
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binary

"crack was an issue in detroit in the 80's....... but in this situation, i think it's a solution"

B DuBois /2007

Sep 2, 07 3:03 pm  · 
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