The Malleable Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin designed by Peter Eisenman has become an iconic and emotional project in the past few years.  The memorial was completed in December of 2004 and was dedicated in May of 2005. Thousands of concrete slabs span a massive area of 19,000 square meters and are placed in an organized grid pattern.  

Although I have not personally visited this site yet, it looks as if the space is extremely dynamic in that it changes based on the time of day, season, weather conditions, sunlight, etc.  In addition to these aesthetic changes, the change in scale is also very intriguing. My analyses include two different views of the memorial: one from an aerial perspective and another from the human experience.  From the aerial view, the space takes on a rippling, textured skin effect that is more seamless.  From the scale of the average person, the blocks seem more massive and the pattern more maze-like.  It is interesting how malleable this space is based on aspects like scale. 

Textured skin from birds-eye

Detail of texture

VERSUS:

Human experience