Architecture is a Language: Daniel Libeskind at TEDxDUBLIN
Summary
TLDRThe speaker, an architect inspired by James Joyce's language complexity, discusses the integration of architectural design with cultural and social spaces. They compare architecture to music for its emotional and abstract nature, emphasizing the importance of balance and the role of drawing as the core of architectural creation. The talk includes insights on designing unique spaces that evoke memory and serve diverse functions, from residential to museums, and the challenge of creating meaningful public spaces in high-density urban environments. The speaker concludes with reflections on the ongoing reconstruction of Ground Zero, highlighting the significance of freedom and unity in city-building.
Takeaways
- 📚 The speaker is inspired by James Joyce's complex and ambiguous use of language, which they relate to their architectural designs.
- 🏙️ The speaker sees a connection between architecture and music, emphasizing the emotional and spiritual impact of both.
- 🎨 They believe that architecture, like music, is based on balance and communicates through the inner ear rather than just the eye.
- ✍️ The speaker views drawings as scores that need to be interpreted, highlighting the abstract nature of architectural design.
- 🏡 In designing a house, the speaker aimed to create a work of art that didn't rely on traditional sculptures or paintings.
- 🏛️ For the Military History Museum in Dresden, the speaker focused on disrupting the traditional narrative to address the past and future.
- 🌳 The speaker's design for a neighborhood in Singapore aimed to provide individuality and a sense of specialness in a high-density setting.
- 🌆 In the Yongsan project in Korea, the speaker sought to create a city that combined nature, public spaces, and diversity, avoiding a grid-like imposition.
- 🏙️ The speaker's approach to skyscrapers in Yongsan was to design them as unique works of art, connected to the street in a new way.
- 🌐 The speaker concludes by emphasizing the interconnectedness of drawings, houses, museums, neighborhoods, and cities in their work.
Q & A
What aspect of James Joyce's work inspires the speaker in their architectural designs?
-The speaker is inspired by James Joyce's use of language, complexity, ambiguity, and the meanings that model and modernize language, which they think about when creating plans for cities, buildings, and social cultural spaces.
How does the speaker relate architecture to music?
-The speaker believes architecture and music are closely related emotionally. They view architecture as complex and abstract like music, communicating to the soul rather than just the mind, and based on balance, which is perceived by the inner ear.
What does the speaker consider the source of architecture?
-The speaker considers drawing as the source of architecture because it involves the hand, eye, and mind interconnected in a process that is not purely intellectual but also spiritual.
Why did the speaker design an atrium with inverted letters as a homage to James Joyce?
-The speaker built the atrium with a thousand and one inverted letters based on Joyce's thunder words, which are likened to the '100 words of God', without a commission, as a part of the second memorial to James Joyce.
How does the speaker approach designing a house that is a work of art without any sculptures or paintings?
-The speaker approached the design by rethinking traditional elements of a house, focusing on creating a space that is inspiring and functional, using materials like stainless steel and solid wood to craft a unique relationship with the landscape.
What was the speaker's concept behind the Military History Museum in Dresden?
-The speaker's concept for the Military History Museum involved creating a wedge-like volume that dramatically interferes with the old arsenal, disrupting the chronology of military history and pointing to the city's past and future, addressing the history in a way that is not a glorification of militarism.
How does the speaker integrate history and memory into their architectural designs?
-The speaker integrates history and memory by designing spaces that are not just functional but also evoke a sense of individuality and specialness, allowing each occupant to have a unique relationship with the space and its surroundings.
What is the speaker's vision for a high-density neighborhood in Singapore?
-The speaker's vision for a high-density neighborhood in Singapore involves designing towers with doubly curved facades that give each apartment a sense of individuality and specialness, connected by green spaces and public areas to create a sustainable and vibrant community.
How does the speaker plan to transform the Yongsan district in Korea?
-The speaker plans to transform the Yongsan district by creating a city that brings nature to the waterfront, organizes around public spaces and nature, and designs skyscrapers and neighborhoods that are not imitations of lower buildings but have their own specialties, creating a diverse and vibrant city.
What is the speaker's approach to designing skyscrapers in the Yongsan project?
-The speaker's approach to designing skyscrapers in the Yongsan project is to create unique works of art that are not just taller versions of lower buildings but have a special relationship with the street and the city, designed in collaboration with many architects to reflect the city's history and memory.
What is the speaker's perspective on the relationship between a city, a museum, a drawing, a neighborhood, and a house?
-The speaker believes that a city is a museum, a museum is a drawing, a drawing is a neighborhood, and a neighborhood is a house, suggesting that these entities coexist and are interconnected rather than being separate entities.
Outlines
🏛️ Architectural Inspirations and Joyce's Legacy
The speaker expresses gratitude for being with esteemed colleagues and lecturers in Dublin, a city they love. They share insights into what drives their work, highlighting James Joyce's use of language as a significant influence. They appreciate the complexity and ambiguity in Joyce's writing, which they find inspiring when designing buildings and cities. The speaker mentions a building they designed as a tribute to Joyce, featuring a thousand inverted letters based on his thunder words, a concept inspired by the '100 words of God.' This project was done without a commission, reflecting the speaker's passion for architecture and Joyce's influence. They also discuss the relationship between architecture and music, drawing parallels between the emotional and abstract nature of both disciplines. They emphasize the importance of balance in architecture, which they believe is perceived by the inner ear rather than the eye. The speaker shares their belief that drawings are akin to musical scores, needing interpretation by a community, and that the process of creating architecture is spiritual and faith-based, focusing on the unseen.
🏡 Innovative Home Design and Historical Relevance
The speaker describes the design process for a unique home in Connecticut for art-loving clients. They were tasked with creating a house that would be a work of art in itself, without needing sculptures or paintings. The house is described as a stainless steel, folded space with a complex geometry that challenges traditional topography. The interior is crafted from solid wood, creating a 'cave-like' atmosphere, while the exterior is made of stainless steel that reflects the sky and landscape. The speaker discusses the house's unconventional relationship with the landscape and how it moves the viewer's vision between interior and exterior spaces. They also touch on the importance of history in architecture, using the example of a military history museum they designed in Dresden. The museum's design disrupts the traditional narrative of military history, aiming to provoke thought about why people participate in such histories and the role of a military museum in a democratic society. The speaker's approach to the museum's design includes a chronological display of German military history, with a specific focus on the periods surrounding World War I and II, represented by a different spatial arrangement within the museum.
🌆 High-Density Living and Urban Memory
The speaker discusses the challenges and considerations of designing high-density neighborhoods, using a project in Singapore as an example. They emphasize the importance of individuality and memory in such developments, aiming to give each occupant a sense of specialness. The design features doubly curved towers where each apartment is uniquely positioned, allowing residents to 'float' in space. The speaker also addresses the sustainability of high-density living and the incorporation of nature and public spaces into the design. They reflect on the role of memory in design, drawing a connection between physical elements like brooks, windows, or towers, and the emotional and historical significance they hold. The speaker then describes a large-scale project in Yongsan, Korea, which involves transforming a former railway land into a vibrant, high-density city. They talk about the importance of creating a diverse and interconnected urban environment that brings the mountains to the waterfront and fosters a sense of community and civic space among the skyscrapers and cultural activities.
🏙️ The Interconnectedness of Architectural Scales
In the final paragraph, the speaker reflects on the interconnectedness of different scales in architecture, from drawings to houses, museums, neighborhoods, and cities. They argue that these elements coexist and influence each other, rather than being separate entities. The speaker shares their vision for a master-planned city that integrates nature, public spaces, and diverse architectural styles, as exemplified by their work in Seoul. They discuss the physical aspects of architectural design, such as the use of paper models and the importance of understanding space and tradition. The speaker concludes with a mention of their work at Ground Zero in New York, highlighting the emotional and societal aspects of architecture and the importance of patience and appreciation for freedom and liberty in creating spaces for all.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Language
💡Architecture
💡Inspiration
💡Drawing
💡Memory
💡Tradition
💡History
💡Creativity
💡Sustainability
💡Freedom
Highlights
The speaker expresses joy and gratitude for being in Dublin and shares their inspirations, including James Joyce's complex use of language.
The speaker's work in architecture is influenced by the desire to create social and cultural spaces that generate new energy within a city.
A personal homage to James Joyce is mentioned, with a building featuring a thousand and one inverted letters based on Joyce's thunder words.
The speaker discusses the spiritual connection between architecture and music, emphasizing the emotional and soulful aspects of both.
Architecture is described as being based on balance, which is sensed internally rather than visually.
The importance of drawing in architecture is highlighted, with the speaker comparing it to a musical score that needs interpretation.
The speaker's belief in the spiritual nature of architecture is expressed, suggesting it's a faith in something not purely visible.
A unique house design for art lovers in Connecticut is described, aiming to be a work of art without traditional art pieces.
The house design incorporates a stainless steel folded space and a solid wood interior, creating a unique relationship with the landscape.
The speaker's approach to history in architecture is explored, with a focus on addressing the past and its impact on the present.
The design of a military history museum in Dresden is discussed, with a focus on disrupting traditional military museum narratives.
The speaker's vision for a high-density neighborhood in Singapore emphasizes individuality and memory within a sustainable design.
The design of a large-scale project in Yongsan, Korea, is described, aiming to bring nature and social spaces to a dense urban environment.
The speaker reflects on the importance of memory in design, drawing parallels between personal memory and the collective memory of a city.
The speaker concludes by discussing the ongoing construction at Ground Zero in New York, emphasizing the importance of patience and the collective effort in building for all.
Transcripts
thank you
i'm so happy to be here with so many
distinguished colleagues so many
distinguished lecturers and i love
dublin i'd like to share with you
what informs
my work
what what inspires me
certainly
james joyce's use of language
the complexity the ambiguity the
meanings
that
model and modernize language are part of
what i like to think about when i create
plans cities
buildings and of course
this building
is part of of generating new energy for
a social cultural space in this
fantastic city but just on the other
side of this space in the atrium of the
office buildings i think i built my
second largest
really homage to james joyce it's a
thousand and one inverted letters
that are based on his thunder words you
know the 100 the words of god
and i have to say i built this without
a commission for this this is just part
of the second memorial to james joyce i
built in japan obviously on the sea of
japan but i think
joyce's
use of language his his unfathomable
aspiration to speak all languages to all
people is something that certainly
inspires me in doing architecture and
in creating cities
now i'd like to share with you thoughts
uh
that that that are part of what i do
and certainly because in my former life
i was a musician professional musician
i've always thought that architecture
and music are closely related first of
all emotionally architecture is as
complex and as abstract as music but it
communicates to the soul doesn't just
communicate to the mind
when you listen to a bach
or artorio it's it's about the soul and
so it is an architecture architecture is
based on balance and that balance is
actually in the inner ear it's not in
the eye
and so when i do drawings these are
abstract drawings which i did
before i had any commissions because i'm
a late bloomer i think for half of my
life i didn't build a single building
uh i thought about the fact that
a drawing is really a score
it's just like a piece of music it has
to be interpreted
by a community
and of course proportions light
materiality are all implicated in the
drawing which when it comes to a
building of course has to also present
the space present the atmosphere of a
building a drawing has to illuminate the
practice and of course in our work we
have many computers and of course you
couldn't do anything without a computer
to be efficient on time rational and so
on but still i truly believe that
drawing is the source of architecture it
is really the source because it's the
hand itself it's the eye it's the mind
interconnected and really sharing in
that
process which is not purely intellectual
but it's really spiritual of kind of
desire a faith in something you cannot
see and it's a proof of something that
is really there but not purely visible
now
one of the thoughts of my favorite uh
poetess
is the fact that
a building is not a repetition of
another building a building does not
need to necessarily have the same
uh formula a building is not really
built out of the same aspects that of
buildings that we have seen before so
the notion of what is the tradition in
architecture is something that has
always interested me and when i had a
chance to design a small house for two
art lovers in connecticut i thought how
can a house really in our time really be
a house of our time and in that sense uh
my clients who are very special they're
they're a couple who own works of art
they deal
with works of art and they ask me to
design a house which would itself be a
work of art which would not have any
sculptures paintings or anything the
house itself and its space should be the
inspiring aspect i thought that was
really an amazing assignment and of
course how do you do that well first of
all one has to rethink you know are
there rafters in the house
what does the house need does it have
walls does it have windows does it need
windows but of course it has to be
something really fantastic to live with
and something that really
works for my clients needs which has to
do with a bedroom a kitchen they love to
cook they love to
have parties invite guests and so on so
really the house is really kind of a
stainless steel
uh folded space it's a complex place to
describe in a plan which i showed before
but it's a house that really
it moves uh your vision through the
interior and to the exterior in very
very specific ways the interiors
completely in in real wood it's not it's
not cladding it's it's solid wood it's
like kind of like a cave of wood
exterior stainless steel which of course
always mirrors the colors of the sky and
the landscape and of course
it's a house that doesn't have the
topography of
of a traditional house it's not a box
it's not organized the way a house is
normally organized in terms of where the
kitchen is how where you eat where do
you watch television what you do and it
has a very very specific
and i think unusual relationship to the
landscape which is located which is a
fantastic landscape which which is full
of light full of liveliness and
again just as that thought of emily
dickinson
what makes what gives a hope
in life it's not really necessarily the
things we think are necessary to bring
that reality onto
the place
now
certainly
i shared a thought
that history is not something which is
over it's not just something that exists
in the past it's something urgent and
it's something which is often hidden by
traditions
so my interest in history has always
been
to address history and every site and
every place has a history sometimes you
cannot see it sometimes the voices
are almost inaudible
sometimes the actions are invisible and
yet the history continues to
to cry out for justice
and when i was designing when i won the
competition to design
a
military history museum which is
actually the largest museum in germany
in dresden a city that was devastated by
the allied bombings i thought a lot
about
history the past the future how do you
take
that history and create something that
that has a meaning
and uh you can see in the sketch the
building is this wedge-like uh
volume that that dramatically interferes
with the old arsenal by the way this old
arsenal built at the end of 19th century
was always the military museum the
saxony military museum the the german
military museum the nazi military museum
the russian military museum the east
german military museum what are you
doing today well i created this movement
towards the city
to show the newly rebuilt city but at
the thing that to point to the
self-similar triangulation in the
bombing of dresden within these three
points
and of course
a building
interrupts
uh i also restored the arsenal of course
but it interrupts and it gives a
specific direction
to see the panorama of the city which is
of course now being rebuilt and at the
same time to present that history not as
one more militaristic uh glorification
of what the military is but why do
people participate in such histories why
do they follow totalitarian leaders and
what is a military museum in germany to
say in the democratic society there's
the plan you can see the u-shape of the
of the old armory restructured and it's
chronological it's horizontal chronology
of of from the 13th century german
military history and then you have this
vector moving through the opacity and
penetrating and going outside and it
disrupts the chronology exactly between
1914 and 1933 and there it is a
completely different space with oblique
vertical latrines a totally different
reorientation and of course the armory
in itself is a very interesting building
was really kind of almost vandalized by
the east german government i brought it
back to its life and presented a
building that
isn't just one more military museum
which shows hardware but
presents that point
towards the city from which you can
understand and towards which you can
apply the fact that history has been
disrupted history is not just a story
that has a good or bad ending it depends
on on where we are what we do what we
decide and of course it's a very raw
building
you can see this incorporates this is
the the other side of the building it
incorporates the old neoclassic stairs
so it preserves actually the entire
building is preserved it's only cut in
two lines from which the wedge uh
appears and of course
i worked very closely with
the exhibition designer hakim mertz and
barbara holzer to create a museum which
distances which redefines the relation
between equipment because this equipment
is not to be seen as military grant how
did people invent it what did they want
to do with these helicopters that kill
and how to display them and it's i think
an interesting
lesson in how to
how wars how violence
is actually perceived by those who
perpetrate it and by those who
experience it
uh of course at the end of this journey
you you you jut out
to a dramatic uh upward moving
wedge and you see the rebuilt panorama
of of dresden you see you see the
fragment you see the glorious one around
but just to your side the wedge moves
towards the point from which dresden was
bombed and i wanted people to have the
double that complexity that history has
that past in a true way pointing to the
devastation to the crimes of history
which can never be
re-thought which cannot never be
reversed but at the same time that
there's a hope that the city has a new
light
and
here
uh one of my favorite poets german
i i thought it was so interesting
because the thought here is what do we
remember in our lives
what what do we remember complex ideas
what do you we just remember something
very very real like a brook or a window
or a tree or a tower
so
when i'm designing something i think
about it not just as an object a
functional a presentation a a
technological
even a culture invention but something
that has to do with memory because
that's what we are we are oriented
because we can remember and so when i
was designing a large-scale neighborhood
in singapore
i thought how do you design such a high
density neighborhood
uh
that has an individuality because we are
used to the fact that a house can have
in the individuality and architect but
when it comes to high density
developments this is one of the highest
density developments in the world how do
you give each occupant
a
sense
of being a sense of specialness and in
these towers which are doubly curved you
can see that each of the apartments is
just slightly
off
the apartment above and below you kind
of float in a space and even the lower
villas are related to nature in a very
specific way in their complex geometries
and really that is really that brook
that that piece of
that wall that door that image
that i think is so important in high
density and of course high density is
sustainability we can't afford just to
build private residences we can't afford
just to build low density places so how
does one activate that thought that
memory and each individual should be
given the opportunity of being free of
having a space of having something that
at the end of the day
is something inspiring and something
so of course the high level bridges with
their greener which connect these
high-density spaces the entire
topography of the place the fact that it
is really really much higher than most
of the buildings in in the place is part
of it
well i come to really because it's it's
at the end of your day uh christopher
logue you know in his brilliant
translation of the iliad
i thought really his references also to
the city itself because the conflicts
the tensions in a city the search for
social justice for opportunity for
diversity
that kind of vibrancy of what a city
really represents as a creative entity
is there in the greek notion of the
archipelago and of course the greeks
lived in the archipelagos those little
islands that were connected in mainland
with with the boats and i thought when i
was designing probably one of the
largest projects in the world in yongsan
and korea how do you bring that nature
of of freedom
and social space to heightened city city
we have you know millions of people will
be here uh this is the formal railway
uh
lands that that were occupied by old
infrastructure you know closing the
waterfront how do you bring the
mountains to the waterfront how do you
recreate civic civic space with what 30
skyscrapers
and what
half a million square feet of retail and
museums cultural activities
transportation how do you really create
it without just imposing on it some sort
of artificial grid so i took that grid
that implied grid
which really doesn't exist in historical
cities in the same way and adapted it to
sort of neighborhoods which are
connected by by the green and you can
see kind of a sequence of images here
that break up that homogeneous notion of
the city into a city that has true
diversity even though of course it has
so many high places and to organize that
city around
nature around public spaces around where
people are where people shop where
people walk where people go to to movies
to to to concerts to to to museums
and there it is now
it's something very new because usually
skyscrapers have been designed simply on
the same streets that lower buildings
were designed they were just taller
buildings just got a total and tall
taller so my notion here was how do you
design a city where the buildings are no
longer just imitations of lower
buildings but have a speciality and of
course there are at least i don't know
20 30 architects from around the world
which are part of the scheme to design
each building really is a kind of an
unique work of art not connected to the
street in the same way as we have known
it before of course
as an architect you have to do it with
very often very physical means paper
models it's not just all computerized
it's not just uh statistical it's not
mathematics although a lot of it is it's
really how do you create that that sense
of
of space for each of these objects which
are so large i mean one of the tallest
maybe the tallest tower in the world uh
is going to be there but many many other
very very high tall buildings and at the
same time the sense of what is tradition
what is history what is the the the
memory of a city as rich as uh seoul
center of korea is so there it is on the
river a kind of
crown of possibilities that refers to
its history now of course you can see
here that the spaces are vast that they
are designed to give a new sense of
feeling new sense of activity and you
can see that this is really for millions
of people again designed as a
intersubjective work with many many
different architects but as a master
planner of course my responsibility is
to create the idea of how nature and
that space can be brought together and
here is one of my own
skyscraper office buildings there and
here is social housing on the waterfront
which is again low cost housing because
it's not only for the rich it's not only
for business it's for all people that
should share in this part of the center
of the city
and there it is
it's of course just begun the master
plan has taken a few years the
architects have done their designs the
construction is beginning it will take
some time even in in asia to to create a
city but
that's really what it is and
i end here i wanted to show that between
the notion of a drawing of a house of a
museum of a neighborhood and of a city i
rather erase the lines
because a city is a museum a museum is a
drawing a drawing is a neighborhood a
neighborhood is a house so the old
categories of what we have always
considered sort of separate entities
really in my view coexist together as a
singular word world and what i didn't
manage to show it was not here is uh my
last picture of ground zero where i just
came from from new york where there was
so much controversy so much skepticism
cynicism so many fights so many emotions
and i just wanted to show you the
picture that it indeed is under
construction it has had more than half a
million visitors already even though
it's a building site the memorial is
finished the towers the tower number one
freedom tower tower number four tower
number three are highly visible almost
completed the museum is
in construction almost completed of
course it one has to have patience it
cannot be done in a day but i think
what i've learned from all of this is
when you live in a free society when
there is an openness when we appreciate
what freedom and liberty
are then we can really build a city for
all thank you
[Applause]
you
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