Isabell Nietgen
Daniel
Libeskind, born in 1946 in Poland, is one of the most important
architects and city planners of our time. At the age of 11 his family
emigrated to Israel, and three years later to the United States.
Libeskind became a US citizen in 1965; he studied music in Israel and
New York and earned his living as a professional musician before
devoting himself to architecture. As one of the most internationally
renowned architects of our time, Libeskind has planned and
implemented numerous projects in Toronto, Düsseldorf, Copenhagen and
London. He has studios in New York, Milan and Zurich.
After
many years as an architectural theorist, he became world famous in
1999 with his first major building, the Jewish Museum in Berlin. At
the time he was already 53 years old and no longer expected to be
successful in architecture. Then in 2003, Libeskind’s project won
the competition for the reconstruction of Ground Zero in New York.
With this complex he wanted to pay tribute to the victims by basing
the One World Trade Center on the footprints of the Twin Towers,
destroyed in 2001.
Many
of Libeskind’s visions were not implemented, in particular the tip
which was designed after the Statue of Liberty. Although the initial
name of his building was the “Freedom Tower”, today it is just
called “One World Trade Center”. He did manage to keep the
symbolic height of the tower, which is 1776 feet (541,32 meters), in
reference to the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
Libeskind’s
buildings do not follow a particular style or process; he creates
them as a collection of background statements on the context.
Consequently, all his projects make reference to keywords or events
which are more or less directly related to the buildings.
Often
criticized for his poetic style, Daniel Libeskind’s numerous
international awards, including the design for One World Trade
Center, demonstrate his excellence.
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