Montreal, Quebec
Cultural
International Competition, Finalist
Titled חַי (pronounced Chai, literally translated from Hebrew as “the living” or “to life”), the museum is a space for education, storytelling, and reflection. Oscillating between the dialectic of memory and mourning, the project seeks to reach out to the living — strengthening the ties between Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Montréal — while grounded in remembrance of those lost. Bearing the marks of past violence, but also of possible healing, the project metaphorically re-welds the shards of broken glass from Kristallnacht into a new facade. Ambiguous and intriguing, these shards play a phenomenological role that goes beyond the symbolic and narrative. The large recycled glass screen floats above the sidewalk, existing between transparency and translucency, uniformity, and fragmentation. By opening toward the city, it establishes the first in a series of thresholds designed to transition our daily life to the spectral history of the Shoah. The visitor is transformed along a path formed by multiple stages of compression, arriving at the exhibition in a due state of mind.
In collaboration with NEUF Architect(e)s, WAA, Consultants: Piper Bernbaum & Louis-Charles Lasnier Images by Notari and Pelletier de Fontenay
Cultural
International Competition, Finalist
Titled חַי (pronounced Chai, literally translated from Hebrew as “the living” or “to life”), the museum is a space for education, storytelling, and reflection. Oscillating between the dialectic of memory and mourning, the project seeks to reach out to the living — strengthening the ties between Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Montréal — while grounded in remembrance of those lost. Bearing the marks of past violence, but also of possible healing, the project metaphorically re-welds the shards of broken glass from Kristallnacht into a new facade. Ambiguous and intriguing, these shards play a phenomenological role that goes beyond the symbolic and narrative. The large recycled glass screen floats above the sidewalk, existing between transparency and translucency, uniformity, and fragmentation. By opening toward the city, it establishes the first in a series of thresholds designed to transition our daily life to the spectral history of the Shoah. The visitor is transformed along a path formed by multiple stages of compression, arriving at the exhibition in a due state of mind.
In collaboration with NEUF Architect(e)s, WAA, Consultants: Piper Bernbaum & Louis-Charles Lasnier Images by Notari and Pelletier de Fontenay