PLANE-SITE has released its latest video about American architect Daniel Libeskind, also featuring the architect's new sculpture that will be presented during Venice Architecture Biennale. 

"Time, Space and Existence. No architect embodies these ideas with greater aplomb than Daniel Libeskind. Working in the spaces of memory, his buildings sketch out disjunctures in the timeline," said the team of PLANE-SITE. The video offers insight into Libeskind’s body of work and his philosophical understanding of time — ideas that manifest in this new work to be unveiled at Venice. He also discusses the power of drawing and his work on the memorial at Ground Zero.

Video by PLANE-SITE

Libeskind's new tower, developed as part of the ECC’s "Time - Space - Existence" exhibition at Palazzo Mora, Palazzo Bembo, and Giardini Marinaressa, a new architectural sculpture - named Facing Gaia - will be located in the 1,600-square-metre Giardini Marinaressa, adjacent to the Giardini. 

Facing Gaia. Image © Studio Libeskind 

Facing Gaia sketch. Image © Studio Libeskind

Facing Gaia sketch. Image © Studio Libeskind

Inspired by ancient forms, the project explores the connections between climate, time, space and existence through architectural thinking. The sculpture's center will be made of a sheet of convex mirror, bound to its steel structure with pioneering GRIP MetalTM technology. This reflective surface marks the tension between the finite and the infinite. The title is derived from the concept that Gaia (the living Earth) is at a moment of crisis, in which resources are running out.

Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany. Image © Hufton+Crow

"The Biennale is an important opportunity to explore meaning and metaphor in architectural space and form," said architect Daniel Libeskind. 

"This moment in time, the very idea of human existence is in question. What is the future of technology? Nature? Humanity? Facing Gaia focuses on the tension of these relationships while inviting open-ended questions and interaction," he added.

Chocolate-colored house in Connecticut, USA. Image © Marc Lins

Born in Lód’z, Poland, in 1946, Daniel Libeskind immigrated to the United States as a teenager. Studio Libeskind was founded in 1989 after winning an international competition to build the Jewish Museum in Berlin. 

A series of influential museum commissions followed, including the Felix Nussbaum Haus, Osnabrück; Imperial War Museum North, Manchester; Denver Art Museum; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; Danish Jewish Museum; Royal Ontario Museum; and the Military History Museum, Dresden. Studio Libeskind was also responsible for the master plan for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Libeskind is based in New York.

Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. Image © Alex Fradkin

This project was made possible thanks to the GAA Foundation, the ECC, and GRIP Metal. Libeskind's Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto was also featured in building series that show a "Bilbao Effect" in Canada, written by World Architecture Reporter Popi Bowman. 

Top image © PLANE—SITE

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