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MILITARY HISTORY MUSEUM in DRESDEN

Se habilito recientemente ampliacin del Dresden Museum of Military History, obra de Daniel Libeskind. Un volumen triangular inserto en este en forma de cua que interrumpe la simetra original del edificio. Un particular dialogo entre lo nuevo y lo antiguo. Por Marcelo Gardinetti Finalizaron las obras del diseo ganador de la ampliacin del Desden Museum of Military History proyectado por el arquitecto polaco/norteamericano Daniel Libeskind. La audaz propuesta irrumpe el edificio original del museo en modo imperativo, buscando una clara diferenciacin de lo nuevo sobre lo antiguo. Un volumen triangular cuya base parte de lado posterior del patio y atraviesa el museo antiguo en forma de cua, destacando su vrtice sobre la calle. El volumen de 30 metros de altura interrumpe la simetra del edificio original, en una escala que parece exagerada a pesar de la lograda superposicin entre la construccin histrica y la actualidad, la rigidez de un pasado militarizado y la apertura de una sociedad democrtica.

La ampliacin consta de 5 pisos. Desde el ultimo piso se obteniene una vista panormica sobre la ciudad. La intervencin de Libeskind plantea este nivel como un espacio para la reflexin. A un lado se exponen armamentos blicos que formaron parte de la destruccin de ciudad. Al otro lado, la visin domina la ciudad reconstruida, sobrepuesta de los constantes bombardeos que la dejaron en ruinas. Sobre su intervencin, Daniel Libeskind seala: No era mi intencin preservar la fachada del Museo y aadir una extensin invisible a su espalda. Quera crear una interrupcin negra, una luxacin fundamental para penetrar en el arsenal histrico y crear una nueva experiencia. La arquitectura participar al pblico en lo ms profundo de cmo se organizaba la violencia. La historia militar y el destino de la ciudad estn entrelazados. la dramtica ampliacin es un smbolo de la resurreccin de Dresden desde sus cenizas. Se trata de la yuxtaposicin de tradicin e innovacin, de lo nuevo y lo viejo. Dresden es una ciudad que ha sido alterada de manera fundamental. Los sucesos del pasado no son solo un pie, son fundamentales para la transformacin de la ciudad hoy.

MEMORIA DE LOS AUTORES The redesigned Dresden Museum of Military History is now the official central museum of the German Armed Forces. It will house an exhibition area of roughly 21,000 square feet, making it Germanys largest museum. The armory was built from 1873 1876 and became a museum in 1897. Since its 1897 founding, the Dresden Museum of Military History has been a Saxon armory and museum, a Nazi museum, a Soviet museum and an East German museum. Today it is the military history museum of a unified and democratic Germany, its location outside the historic center of Dresden having allowed the building to survive the allied bombing campaign at the end of World War II. In 1989, unsure how the museum would fit into a newly unified German state, the government decided to shut it down. By 2001 feelings had shifted and an architectural competition was held for an extension that would facilitate a reconsideration of the way we think about war. Daniel Libeskinds winning design boldly interrupts the original buildings symmetry. The extension, a massive, five-story 14,500-ton wedge of concrete and steel, cuts through the 135-year-old former arsenals structural order. A 82-foot high viewing platform (the highest point of the wedge is 98 feet) provides breathtaking views of modern Dresden
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while pointing towards the area where the fire bombing of Dresden began, creating a dramatic space for reflection. The new faades openness and transparency contrasts with the opacity and rigidity of the existing building. The latter represents the severity of the authoritarian past while the former reflects the openness of the democratic society in which it has been reimagined. The interplay between these perspectives forms the character of the new Military History Museum Inside, in the original, columned part of the building, Germans military history is presented in chronological order. But now it is complemented, in the new wide-open spaces of the five-story wedge, by new exhibition areas with a new focus on thematic consideration of the societal forces and human impulses that create a culture of violence.

Fotografas: Bitter Bredt y Hufton+Crow Photography, courtesy of Studio Daniel Libeskind. Dibujos y Maquetas: Studio Daniel Libeskind Publicado en TECNNE Marcelo Gardinetti, Abril de 2012. Portal de Arquitectura, Urbanismo, Arte y Diseo www.tecnne.com Prohibida su reproduccin sin autorizacin. contacto@tecnne.com