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Inside the Museum: Nothing is going to change? Adaptation of the Jewish Pre-Burial House in Gliwice

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This article discusses the architectural conversion of the historical Gliwice Pre-Burial House into the Museum of Upper Silesian Jews. It describes the former function of the building in the context of the specific history of Upper Silesian Jews, the Haskalah movement, and funeral rites in Judaism. The main part of the paper is devoted to the presentation of the architectural design and the functional division of the planned museum as proposed by the architectural collective that the author is part of. Special attention is given to a discussion of the conceptual framework of the design which tries to reveal the continuity of unformatted architectural memory. The features of proposed design, such as the central installation of The Cloud, merge commemorative aspects with new functions related to hosting public events and historical display. In this way, the design negotiates between remembrance of the Jewish community and the needs of the new inhabitants and users of the space. Thus, the paper contributes to the larger discussion about the adaptation of former Jewish facilities for new public functions.

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Volume/Issue

45(2-3)

Page Number

290-301

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Link to article (paywalled), Inside the Museum: Nothing is going to change? Adaptation of the Jewish Pre-Burial House in Gliwice

Bibliographic Information

Romik, Natalia Inside the Museum: Nothing is going to change? Adaptation of the Jewish Pre-Burial House in Gliwice. East European Jewish Affairs. 2015: 290-301.  https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1080/13501674.2015.1061970