Daniel Libeskind (63) is one of the most renowned architects worldwide. For many years he taught architectural theory at Harvard, Yale, and the University of London. Libeskind completed his first building, the Jewish Museum, Berlin, at the age of 52. The project, which was inaugurated in 1999, put Libeskind on the map. Since then he has been involved with groundbreaking architectural projects such as the redevelopment of "Ground Zero" in New York. His projects increasingly reach out into the sphere of urban design. In 2009 he presented an energy-efficient prefabricated villa.
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What, in your opinion, is a livable city?
Libeskind: An open, democratic city, a city where you can participate in the shaping of its future. There has to be excitement. There has to be tension in terms of technology, politics, buildings - a certain air of creativity and innovation. You can have a city where everything is perfect and everything is running efficiently and smoothly, but you want to commit suicide because there’s no spirit in it. Or you live in a city with huge problems, but there is potential in it and you can participate in the city’s remaking. The latter is obviously more inspiring.
Which city comes closest to your ideal?
Libeskind: It would have to be a combination of several cities: a bit of Berlin and its creative flair, a bit of greater New York, including parts of Queens and Brooklyn, a piece of Milan and its classy style, a bit of Kyoto with its orderliness, a bit of São Paulo and its chaos. That would be the kind of global city that I like.
Cities built from scratch with the aim of being paragons of efficiency would therefore be rather unappealing to you?
Libeskind: Not necessarily. When I say that a great city needs a bit of messiness to be more livable, I am really referring to the intellectual capacity for change in a city. It can be observed in Berlin, a city of constant change. It would be possible to find it in a city built from scratch. Brasília proves the point. Masdar City might as well. It is not about particular buildings, it is about an ambience that sets people free.
Energy efficiency is becoming more and more important in both architecture and urban design. What does this mean for your work?
Libeskind: Enhanced energy efficiency does not conflict with a beautiful form of architecture. However, a great and sustainable building should not have engrained in its aesthetics the statement: Here we are saving energy. Great architecture will still be about human dreams, human aspirations. But technology can help us to get there. New technology gives us incredible opportunities. It is not a barrier to great architecture, nor is it the expression of great architecture. I see it as an enabler.
How important a role does energy efficiency play when it comes to your own projects?
Libeskind: In December 2009 CityCenter was opened in Las Vegas. It’s a mixed-use urban complex with a surface area of more than 1.5 million square meters. Its total cost of approximately $11 billion makes it the largest privately financed development in the United States. It is huge, but it expresses an architectural vision. And it is also green. The entire building is gold LEED certified, meaning that it fulfills the highest standards for energy efficiency.
Siemens delivered solutions for CityCenter totaling around $100 million…
Libeskind: Yes, Siemens building technology features prominently in it. CityCenter uses lowwattage lighting sets from Osram, for example and produces its own energy in a highly efficient cogeneration power plant. The shower heads, faucets and toilets reduce water use by 30 percent. I think every building should have some of these features in order to be called a piece of architecture. And then there’s the prefabricated villa I designed last year. We used wood as its base material. Photovoltaics produce energy, and the orientation of rooms with regard to light sources and the proportions of rooms enable a low-energy footprint. It will be one of the most energy-efficient, carbon-neutral buildings on the market. Sustainability is the way forward. Great architecture has to embrace this trend.
In what ways has the global financial and economic crisis affected architecture?
Libeskind: Some huge projects - like the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai - obviously had to be completed in spite of funding issues. Other, more recent projects may have been scrapped or downsized. But good architecture is never just about throwing money at projects. We were able to deliver the Jewish Museum in Berlin for several million dollars under budget. There are limits to everything, and the fact that the world appears to be running out of resources is a powerful reminder of this. I see the current situation as a chance to bring back a perception of architecture as something irreplaceable. It is not just another consumer item, but something we need for life.