Keeping the Faith

 

One of the offers from the archdaily recently is this lovely synagogue in the heart of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

It caught my eye as it is designed and executed by seARCH, the former managing director of which, David Gianotten, is now the Hong Kong Partner of OMA.

That opening gambit makes me sound a bit stalker-ish but be nice, I’m trying to get a new job. (Please see attached C.V)

Anyway, upon first inspection I found that this building really intrigued me. The gorgeous illumination from inside the building, caused buy the natural wooden pallet both shining in the day and illuminated at night, really fills my heart. But then I set about wondering, what does a synagogue typically look like?

Religious buildings are a staple of most architectural studies, and thus, in turn, much of the points of rhetoric visual language that go in to building most of our western cities. In my mind’s eye I see a normal church people sitting in rows, only instead of the crucified Jezo up the end there’s a candle stick and a massive scroll and then I got worried I was being brutally anti-symmetric. Have I totally excluded part of the world’s population? The archdaily suggests that because of an unstable relationship between judaism and other religions and the wide dispersal of the religion throughout the world, these have somehow prevented the evolution of any specifically recognized architectural style but was that really the case?

After trying to enter in to an education I quickly realized that there was no mystery and that all community spaces are pretty much the same. This thankfully allowed me to move on and look at the build itself.

Architecture has to consider the space between the walls and roof to create a vessel for the activity for as long as the building exists. This building has been designed for a multifunctional community and, as such, the aforementioned considered void is of slightly more importance than a simpler, single activity, more visually noisy building like a shop.

The rectangular form of this building fits squarely and snugly on to the site. The building’s layout is a gridwork of straight pragmatic lines creating the most usable space in a building of many functions. As such, it is the elevations that give the building it character.

The multi layer balconies overlooking the main space are outlined on the east and west façade creating the look of the seven armed candle stick. The form of the window allows floods of light in to the main space highlighting the symbolism of the candle stick while allowing natural light to penetrate. Externally ceramic tiles align in to the star of David and scripture, supporting the window out line by subtly enshrouding the building with its strong identity.

I really dig these old school symbols over laid on top of the new school symbol of modernist architecture; the ubiquitous concrete box. The building and its spaces looks so well considered and as such so fresh that it reaffirms my faith in actual architecture while I’m surrounded grotesque lobotomized construction.