Danish Jewish Museum (2003-2004)
Unlike Eastern European Jews, Danish Jews largely escaped the Holocaust thanks to the efforts of their countrymen, and so Libeskind's design for the Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen takes a more hopeful tone than his designs for the German museums. The building itself has a unique and relevant history to the Danish-Jewish experience: In the 16th century it was the boathouse of King Christian IV, the ruler who first invited the Jews to Denmark, and in the 1940s it was the Royal Library, where Jewish artifacts were hidden during the Nazi occupation. Libeskind's design for the gallery space is titled "Mitzvah" (or "light"), and is symbolized by pale Scandinavian birch wood walls and a stained-glass window. Planked floors and walls built at varying angles create a feeling of being at sea, a conscious nod to the building's origin and to October 1943, when ordinary Danes helped Jews flee Denmark by boat.

© Bitter & Bredt. Reproduced with the permission of Studio Daniel Libeskind