Impactful, is the word I would use if I had to explain my time in Berlin. It is a city filled with contemporary architectural icons, but also monuments respecting its past. This sort of urban development allows for dramatic framing and moments that make you pause and contemplate. As I explored the city with all of my classmates and professors a photographic record began to develop.
As we navigated through the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the field of solid stone blocks descended into the landscape. This reservation of space almost serviced as a scar on the landscape of the city. It reminds the people of Berlin of Germany’s past. This space left for memory was powerful, it disrupted landscape, causing a moment. Architecture has the power to convey so much in such a small gesture, and this example shows exactly that. Another space reserved to pay respect to the lives lost in the horrendous acts of the Holocaust is the Jewish Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind. For a building with such jarring form it sits so perfectly within the city. Descending into the landscape, the spaces created a major change in atmosphere. The lighting dimmed, making the streams of light cascading in from outside that much more impactful. The voids within this museum expressed effects of the holocaust that can’t quite be formed into words. You felt it and you understood it. The spaces spoke for themselves and displayed a complex narrative in yet again, subtle gestures. These spaces held so much weight and I am grateful to have experienced them.
The power in which architecture has to tell a narrative and hold so much context and history is incredible. Even beyond it’s remembering of its past, the composition of Berlin’s structures creates such amazing moments of lighting. If you ever visit Berlin, I’d definitely suggest allowing for time to pause and exist within the many moments in this city.
Until next time,
Cornelius Tulloch