Dezeen Wire: architecture critics have been offering their thoughts on Daniel Libeskind's divisive Military History Museum in Dresden, which opened earlier this month.

The Observer's architecture critic Rowan Moore praised the spaces where the old museum meets the new addition but admonished the shard-like extension for its lack of functional space, stating: "The design's weakness is its belief that sheer shape can speak on its own."

In a review for The Wall Street Journal, Mary M. Lane described Libeskind's intervention as "a piece of shrapnel freshly fallen from the sky" and outlines the architect's motivations for working on the project, as a child of Holocaust survivors.

Writing in German publication Deutsche Welle, Ronny Arnold said that Libeskind's renovation marks a new beginning and claims that "the museum is moving away from the mere presentation of war equipment and toward multidimensionality," while Erin Huggins of The Local obtained a positive response to the building from museum spokesman Major Lars Berg, who said: “It’s an interesting combination of conventional components and something very progressive that one wouldn’t expect from the military."

Libeskind's design has had our readers up in arms - see the article and comments here and see all of our previous stories on Daniel Libeskind here.

Update 17/11/11: see a new set of photos in our later story.

Back to Dezeenwire »
Back to Dezeen »