Internationally acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind unveils design of Kurdish museum
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The design for a museum aiming to showcase the story of the Kurdish people – which is replete with decades of oppression and suffering -- has been unveiled by internationally acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind.
The planned 150,000 square-foot museum is projected to cost approximately $250 million and will be built near Erbil's historic Citadel.
Libeskind, according to Bloomberg, envisions a museum divided into four parts - Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey - or "fragments," as he called them. The Kurdish nation is "cut out of topographical maps of population densities," Libeskind said.
The museum will also have a lecture theater, a digital archive of Kurdish history, a community center and a landscaped outdoor space.
Construction of the museum was set to begin just before the Islamic State (ISIS) overran the city of Mosul and threatened the Kurdistan Region nearly two years ago.
Witnessing ISIS's destruction of ancient artifacts and buildings in both Iraq and Syria Libeskind believes it is important the museum is finished.
"I thought, you know, this (the construction of the museum) is even more urgent now," he explained.
The planned 150,000 square-foot museum is projected to cost approximately $250 million and will be built near Erbil's historic Citadel.
Libeskind, according to Bloomberg, envisions a museum divided into four parts - Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey - or "fragments," as he called them. The Kurdish nation is "cut out of topographical maps of population densities," Libeskind said.
The museum will also have a lecture theater, a digital archive of Kurdish history, a community center and a landscaped outdoor space.
Construction of the museum was set to begin just before the Islamic State (ISIS) overran the city of Mosul and threatened the Kurdistan Region nearly two years ago.
Witnessing ISIS's destruction of ancient artifacts and buildings in both Iraq and Syria Libeskind believes it is important the museum is finished.
"I thought, you know, this (the construction of the museum) is even more urgent now," he explained.