Recipient of the 2023 National Award for Public Architecture, the much-anticipated Melbourne Holocaust Museum will reopen its doors to the public on Sunday 12 November.
The Kerstin Thompson Architects-designed museum adaptively reuses the original building on the site, constructed in the 1920s and purchased by the museum in 1984.
A significant site for memorializing and preserving history, the form visually and physically interacts with the street through its facade and internal views to the surrounding neighbourhood. The frontage of the building prompts passersby to pause, reflect and remember.
The facade uses a combination of clay and transparent glass bricks woven together, enabling light to be drawn through the clear bricks.
Image:
Derek Swalwell
The concept of light was central to the design, with light not only being a symbol of knowledge, but also a beacon of hope. The facade uses a combination of clay and transparent glass bricks woven together, enabling the light to be drawn through the clear bricks, and again creating a relationship with the street. Soft natural light fills the interior, while complementary timber features offer a subdued yet visually pleasing aesthetic.
Timber features offer a subdued yet visually pleasing aesthetic.
Image:
Derek Swalwell
The project has garned significant praise from those within the architecture profession. The 2023 National Architecture Awards jury observed in their citation “the details are rigorous and pared back, granting a calm order and elegance. From outside to within, this building is perfectly positioned as a sophisticated and appropriate place to tell the stories of the Jewish community.
“This simple, warm space is a comforting adjunct to the immersive exhibition spaces which are at times confronting.”
Similarly, the 2023 Victorian Architecture Awards jury said the realization of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum is simultaneously sensitive and powerfully symbolic. “A humane architectural language and materiality define the museum’s centralised circulation.
“Moments of vertical connection evoke reverence and the clever manipulation of natural light through openings and reflective surfaces provide relief from the museum’s exhibits, as well as facilitating opportunities for contemplation and contextualisation. The museum is successful in its balance of the pragmatic, poetic and sustainable.”
The museum, comprises three exhibition spaces, as well as learning, memorial and research facilities. With the launch of the museum marks the debut of its permanent exhibition Everybody Had a Name, a tragic and moving retelling of survivor stories, accompanied with photographs and artefacts. Melbourne Holocaust Museum opens on 12 November 2023. To find out more about current exhibitions visit the Melbourne Holocaust Museum website.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
