Berlin 2009 - Wingender Hovenier Architecten

Holocaust-Mahnmal, Berlin, 1998-2005
Peter Eisenman
Although the memorial is still the
subject of political and legal squabbles,
the main idea of the design (in which
Richard Serra was also involved) has
remained. It is intended to convey a
special spatial experience above and
beyond hierarchically organised space.
Today, space is characterised by a
transition - from the production of
objects in space to the production of
space itself. As a product factor, space
is defined in controlled, hierarchical,
political and economic terms - with a
tendency towards reduction to surface
textures - with space itself as
emptiness, reduced to a “medium that
is waiting to be colonised” (Henri
Lefebvre). The Holocaust Memorial is
intended to reactivate spatial
experiences, particularly physical
emotions which can be aroused by
spatial means. The narrow, uniformly
arranged tall stone stele only seem to
form a homogeneous spatial structure.
As soon as it is entered, the apparent
transparency of strict organisation
mutates into a threatening, oppressive
lack of orientation. This experience is
not only metaphorical, it is also an
expression of contradictory spatial
reality.