A CORE OF LIGHT

The first temple of liberal Judaism in Germany on Poolstrasse in Hamburg was completed in 1844. In 1944 it was largely destroyed in a bomb attack. Only the portal, the apse building and a wall connecting these two are still preserved. The ruins that still stand today are falling into disrepair and are used by a car repair shop. In the draft presented here, the site is transformed back into a center for Jewish life in Hamburg for the Jewish community and the inhabitants of the city.

The design first draws in a grid of columns, the rhythm of which is based on the structural features of the temple. They are drawn over the entire property and the gateway to the street, and literally “carry” the rest of the design – the actual building seems to be vibrating beyond itself. While on the outside a sober cubature and facade shape seem to bring the structural elements of the destroyed temple to the fore, an unexpected unique world is created inside: A steel construction, lit from above, is clad on all sides with cast glass panels and forms the diffusely luminous core of the building, that in its interior, in an integrated almost baroque will of form, carries the synagogue. The preserved apse with the Torah ark forms the central element, where the rhythm of the columns ends.