The Foster + Partners architectural bureau is designing the Albert Einstein Museum in the capital of Israel. The new museum is planned to be built on the slope of Mount Scopus, in close proximity to the Hebrew University, of which the great scientist was one of the founders. By the way, this university is the owner of one of the world's largest collections of personal papers and documents that belonged to Einstein: it is this collection that will form the basis of the museum's exposition.
However, the architectural image of the new institution will be as far as possible from a traditional museum: the main building has a spherical shape, part of which is an amphitheater, "assembled" from gyroscopic mirrors projecting light onto a giant black screen. The content and duration of this "light show" will depend on the time of day and cloudiness, and in the evening and at night the lamps will reflect in the mirrors, creating the illusion of a starry sky. The architects propose to make the facades of the new museum ribbed by arranging thin plates of Jerusalem stone in such a way that from certain angles on the surface of the building one can guess the face of Einstein himself.
SANAA has unveiled a project for the new campus of the Bezalel Academy of Arts, which will be built near the Russian Compound in Jerusalem. The location in the very center of the city, according to the leadership of the academy, will strengthen the image of Jerusalem as a center of not only religious, but also secular life, as well as artistic creativity.
The architects propose to solve the new campus in the form of rectangular horizontal blocks, which are combined taking into account the hilly relief of the ancient city. The "slabs" of individual buildings are shifted relative to each other so that multiple terraces appear at different levels of the campus.
As conceived by the authors, the presence of numerous public spaces of various sizes and degrees of intimacy will be the best way to create a creative atmosphere, because in order to comprehend art, it is not enough to attend lectures. An incentive for "interdisciplinary" communication will also be the unification of all eight faculties on the territory of the new campus. In addition to classrooms and lecture halls, the complex will include a variety of art workshops and administrative premises.
A. M.
