The National Library is pleased to share the concept designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron for the new home of the Library in Jerusalem. As set out in the brief for the new building, the design, which will evolve during subsequent design stages, communicates the ‘values of openness and accessibility to the general public of all classes, nationalities and denominations’. — National Library of Israel
The 34,000 square meter building will house climate-controlled archives as well as digital facilities and both indoor and outdoor venues for cultural programming. In a statement, Herzog & de Meuron claim, “Our project reflects the open and transparent ambitions of the National Library of Israel. The strong, sculptural form of the stone, related to the specific topography and context of the site, is elevated off the ground, and situated above vitrine like elements. The stone contains a large open space for the library’s visitors and users to interact while the vitrines expose the collection, reading room and public functions to the street and adjacent surroundings.”
The firm won the project over other well-known practices such as that of Renzo Piano, Frank Gehry and Israeli architects Ammar Curiel, Kimmel Eshkolot and Kolker Kolker Epstein. Originally, the Israeli architect Rafi Segal was set to design the building until becoming embroiled in a copyright dispute.
"The new building is the jewel in the crown of the National Library's renewal enterprise, which is moving forward full-speed," asserts David Blumberg, Chair of the Library. "The new building will reflect the Library's role as a leading national institution in the collection and preservation of the treasures of the Jewish people in Israel and throughout the world."
The library is sited adjacent to other important Israeli institutions such as the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, the Science Museum, the Israel Museum and the Hebrew University.
The new announcement comes amidst continued political turmoil in the history city. This summer, Israel's "Operation Protective Edge" in Gaza left more than 21,000 Palestinians dead as well as 66 Israeli soldiers and six Israeli citizens. Tensions remain high after Amnesty International condemned Israel of committing war crimes during the intervention, as well as a series of violent incidences including two attacks by Palestinian individuals attempting to ram cars into Israeli pedestrians in Jerusalem. Central to these recent conflicts was the decision by the Israeli government to temporarily restrict access to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem – the third holiest site for Muslims – following an assassination attempt on a right-wing rabbi. The site has a turbulent past: in the 1980s, a group of extremist Israelis attempted to blow up the structure and the 2000 visit by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon helped spark the Second Intifada.
Of the many, seemingly-irreconcilable issues behind the Israel-Palestine conflict, issues of cultural heritage and preservation remain some of the most intractable. Here even archaeology becomes deeply political and controversial. In a recent opinion piece in the Jewish Post, Blumberg asserts that they are "determined to build a meeting place and cultural resource for Jews, Muslims and Christians alike." At the same time, in their press release, the National Library self-describes their mission as to collect, preserve, and study historical artists "in connection to the State of Israel and the Jewish people, in particular," which for some would already qualify theirs as a politically-inflected mandate.
As far as the building itself, construction is slated to begin in 2016 with the aid of local firm Shinar Architects.
5 Comments
Can't wait for tammuz to jump all over this.
I guess it is pretty clear that archinect did not choose to boycott Israel. Neither did Herzog and DeMeuron...
everytime I see that pic of these 2 I think for a second that its the cover of a simon and garfunkle album.
which part of your asses tammuz hurt so much?
Hadn't paid any attention to this before, but it's interesting reading the background. Apparently quite a spat over the original selection from the competition. The original competition was open only to Israeli designers - plus 4 selected international firms.
The winner of that round, Israeli-American Rafi Segal, was opposed by a local planning official for his potentially anti-Zionist views*. More significantly, the funders of the project never really wanted an open competition, and would have preferred to interview qualified architects directly. So when it came out the Segal hired another firm to complete the competition for him, he was dismissed, despite arguing that the essential design idea was his own. Lots of argument about that, but Segal gave up when it became clear he couldn't sue his way into the client's favor.
So in the end the selection committee abandoned the competition and directly interviewed the pre-selected international teams, settling on H+dM. Good for them.
The lesson for any potential public institutions reading this: open competitions are a waste of time, and getting out of a bad pick is like going through a little divorce. Really, seriously - just don't do it!
And for all those architects hoping to get their big break in a competition: read the rules. Don't hire another firm to "help out" with it. If you can't handle the competition workload, you can't handle the project.
*a neat factoid in this is that a publication Segal co-edited was censored by the Israeli Architect's Association, before later being revised and accepted. And I thought academia was just a bunch of argument without consequences...
As to the proposed H+dM design - it seems nice. Restrained, elegant and comfortable. Wish Jerusalem was as peaceful as this space looks to be.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.