News: architect Daniel Libeskind has been chosen to design a Holocaust memorial in the state capital of Ohio, USA.

A specially appointed selection committee this week approved Libeskind's proposal for a five-metre-high memorial outside the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

The proposed design comprises two brushed stainless steel panels with cutouts that together form the outline of a six-pointed Star of David.

A walled limestone path would lead up to the memorial and provide seating, while both the walls and the panel would be inscribed with text.

The $2 million project will largely be privately funded, but the state will pay for site preparation costs.

Richard H. Finan, chairman of the advisory board that will make the final decision on the design, warned that the inclusion of a Jewish religious symbol in the design could invite legal challenges against the publicly funded portion of the project due to the separation of church and state in the US.

"If we get sued, it will be five years until this gets going," he told the Columbus Dispatch, adding that Libeskind's design would not fit in with the Civil War-era government building.

The shortlist for the project included Columbus-based artist Ann Hamilton, who proposed a limestone plinth designed to amplify sounds, and Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, who put forward a nine-metre-high sculpture of bronze leaves.

Elsewhere in the US, architect Frank Gehry's proposed Washington D.C. memorial honouring President Eisenhower has lately faced a barrage of criticism over the project's cost and controversial design.

In New York, Louis Kahn's Four Freedoms Park commemorating President Roosevelt finally opened to the public last autumn, almost 40 years after it was designed. See all memorials on Dezeen.

Top image shows model of Libeskind's proposed design.

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News: planning permission has been granted for Daniel Libeskind's proposed peace centre on the site of the notorious former Maze prison in Belfast.

Northern Ireland's environment minister Alex Attwood announced yesterday that the new Peace building and Conflict Resolution Centre (PbCRC) has been given the green light, along with the conservation of surrounding buildings.

A collaboration between Studio Daniel Libeskind and Belfast architects McAdam Design, the centre will support the work of peace building organisations in the region.

Used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles, the Maze prison, also known as Long Kesh, became notorious for the hunger strikes of 1981, in which ten prisoners died. The prison was closed in 2000.

"It is truly meaningful to build a hope-filled common ground, to tell individual stories and to do so at Maze Long Kesh," said Libeskind.

The redevelopment is set to cost £300 million, with the peace centre itself wholly funded through an £18 million grant from the European Union's PEACE III Programme.

Plans to redevelop part of the site as a showground were approved back in January, with the aim of relocating the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society's annual show from its current Belfast location.

Libeskind's work includes a number of other monuments to conflict, such as the Imperial War Museum North in Salford, England, and the Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, due to be built at the University of Essex in England – see all architecture by Daniel Libeskind.

Other Belfast projects we've featured include a performing arts centre with a volcanic stone facade and a maritime museum dedicated to the RMS Titanic.

Images are by Studio Daniel Libeskind.

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Never Say the Eye Is Rigid: Architectural Drawings of Daniel Libeskind will feature sketches and watercolours by the New York architect for seven of his best-known projects, including the Jewish Museum in Berlin (top) and the Museum of Military History in Dresden (below).

Daniel Libeskind described the importance of drawing to his architectural practice in his 2004 memoir, Breaking Ground: Adventures in Life and Architecture. "[T]he physical act of drawing with one’s hand is an important part of the architectural process," he wrote. "An architect needs to know how to draw; unless there is a connection of eye, hand, and mind, the drawing of the building will lose the human soul altogether and become an abstract exercise."

Click above for larger image

Over 50 original drawings are to go on show, from a huge scroll depicting the masterplan for the Ground Zero site in New York (above) to smaller sketches and more traditional line drawings.

Other projects illustrated in the exhibition include the 18.36.54 House in Connecticut, the Fiera Milano mixed-use complex in Milan (above) and the Zlota 44 residential tower in Warsaw (below). Two unbuilt projects will also feature: the City Edge masterplan for Berlin and a proposed extension to London's V&A museum (bottom).

The exhibition will run from 11 March to 30 April at the Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery in Rome. It will then travel to the gallery's other locations in Milan, Turin, Tel Aviv and New York.

This week Libeskind was also in the news for speaking out against architects who create "morally questionable" buildings in undemocratic countries. He also recently completed an education centre at the Jewish Museum Berlin.

See more architecture by Daniel Libeskind, including his proposals for the Yongsan International Business District in Seoul, South Korea.

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News: Daniel Libeskind has spoken out against architects who create "morally questionable" buildings in undemocratic countries, calling on them to consider whether their projects are "legitimate".

"Architects have to take responsibility for their work," the Polish-born architect told The Architect's Journal last week, saying morals should always play a role when selecting new projects around the world.

"Even if they produce gleaming towers, if they are morally questionable, I'm not interested," said Libeskind, who is known for taking on culturally sensitive projects such as the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the under-construction masterplan for the World Trade Center site in New York.

"I'm not interested in building gleaming streets for despots; I prefer making work in the challenges and constraints of a democracy than working in a homogenous system," he added.

"I can't separate the formal geometry from the context of who they were commissioned by and the morality of those states."

Libeskind is also set to unveil plans for a "conflict transformation centre" on the site of the notorious Maze prison in Belfast, where the UK government held Irish republican prisoners during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. "It has such a meaningful, difficult history," he told the magazine.

"For me the project is about building the peace and about reconciliation," he said. "Architecture doesn't work alone, but should be part of the process of going towards a better place."

Last year Libeskind completed an education centre for the Jewish Museum in Berlin as an extension to his earlier project, which opened 12 years previously - see more architecture by Daniel Libeskind.

In 2012 he also designed two projects in the South Korean capital of Seoul – a cluster of three curved towers inspired by a Buddhist dance and a skyscraper with a pointy midriff, both in the Yongsan International Business District that he masterplanned.

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Located across the street within the structure of Berlin's old flower market, the Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin provides a new home to the museum's library and archive, which has doubled in size over the last decade to accommodate both printed and digital records.

At the entrance, Libeskind has designed a roughly-hewn timber box that bursts through the exterior wall, with angular skylights and a sliced opening to invite visitors inside. Two additional timber boxes are located within the building and house the library and auditorium.

The 2300-square-metre centre will be used as a venue for educational workshops, lectures and conferences, and will also offer a meeting place for the 7000 guided tours run by the museum each year.

The Jewish Museum Berlin is one of the largest museums of Jewish history in Europe and opened to the public in 2001, following the construction of Libeskind's extension to the original 1930s building.

"My ongoing collaboration with the Jewish Museum Berlin is a source of tremendous professional and personal pride," said Daniel Libeskind. "Each project offers a fresh chance to illuminate Jewish history and culture, to understand the tragedies and the triumphs, and to celebrate the resilience, creativity and erudition that have been Jews’ enduring legacy."

This year Libeskind was also selected to design a peace centre on the site of a former prison in Northern Ireland and completed a family of curved towers in Singapore.

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Photography is by Bitter Bredt.

Here's some more information from Studio Daniel Libeskind:

The Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin Will Be Forum for Research, Discussion and Education

Roughly a dozen years after Daniel Libeskind's extension to the Jewish Museum Berlin opened to great acclaim in 2001, the museum has unveiled its latest collaboration with the architect, the Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin.

The 25,000-square-foot, one-storey Academy stands on the site of Berlin’s one-time flower market, whose shell undergirds the new structure. Located across from the museum proper, the Academy brings together its library, archives and education center and offers additional office, storage and support space for the museum.

Since the museum’s reopening in 2001, its public and educational programs have more than doubled. In addition to 7,000 guided tours each year, the museum offers more than 400 educational programs ranging from workshops for children to training courses for museum professionals. The new facility will house these programs as well as symposia, conferences, lectures and seminars.

The museum’s library and archives have also moved to the Academy. The archives, which contain both printed and audio-visual materials, have also doubled in size over the last decade while the library’s holdings have tripled.

In-Between Spaces

Daniel Libeskind’s design for the Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin links the building to the museum’s other structures and open spaces, both thematically and structurally.

One of the first things visitors see upon entering the piazza leading to the building are the words of the great medieval Jewish scholar and philosopher Moses Maimonides. His famous adjuration, "Hear the truth, whoever speaks it," is splashed across the left side of the façade, a reminder that those who delve into history must be prepared to accept what they find regardless of the source. The five languages in which the charge is given – English, German, Hebrew, Arabic and the original Judeo-Arabic of medieval Spain – reinforce that message while also suggesting the universal nature of truth.

On the right, a large downward-sloping cube bursts through the façade. Its unusual contours echo the jagged shape of the museum’s 2001 extension, designed by Mr. Libeskind and visible across the street. That shape is also a variation on a theme found in the museum’s Garden of Exileand Glass Courtyard, also designed by Mr. Libeskind and opened 2007 and 2005, respectively.

Two large skylights, visible from the piazza, rest atop the cube. Shaped like the Hebrew letters Alef and Bet (A and B), they are another reminder of the importance of learning and knowledge to the human experience and of their centrality to Jewish life.

After passing through a large gash in the cube that serves as the Academy’s entryway, visitors are decanted into transitional space comprising two more huge cubes. Thrust forward at odd angles, the cubes, which house the library and the auditorium, form a jagged triumvirate with the rear end of entrance cube.

The movement and interaction suggested by the cubes’ shape and placement and by the seemingly rough-hewn timber (actually radiate pine timber) used to fabricate them suggests the sort of crates used to transport precious objects, including books. They also suggest Noah’s Ark, which preserved the most precious thing of all – living beings, in all their splendid variety – during the most important voyage in biblical history.

"In-Between Spaces," Mr. Libeskind’s name for his design, describes the transitional area among the three cubes. It also alludes to the different perspectives offered by that unique vantage point. Standing on that spot, looking into the hall and out on to museum’s other structures and spaces, visitors are ideally placed to reflect on the museum’s larger purpose and their own experience of it.

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