An exhibition of projects by Krakow-born Israeli architect Zvi Hecker is on view at Berlin's Mitte Museum until June 4, 2023.
Born in May 1931 in Krakow, Tadeusz Heker (Zvi Hecker) emigrated to Israel in the 1950s, where he continued the architectural education he had begun at the Krakow University of Technology. Among his projects in Israel was the Spiral House in Ramat Gan, which he says is the Tower of Babel in miniature. In the 1990s, the architect moved to the German capital, where he established his own office and began working on projects such as the sunflower-inspired famous Jewish School building in Berlin (Heinz-Galinski-Schule).
Over the years, he has participated in numerous architectural competitions - including the design of Republic Square, the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Monument to Freedom and Unity in front of the Humboldt Forum in Belin. He is also present on the Polish architectural scene - he has presented his proposals in competitions for, among others, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw, the Centre for Dialogue Breakthroughs in Szczecin or (in collaboration with Atelier Loegler Architekci) for the design of the complex of buildings of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Cracow, in which the team received an honorable mention.
Hecker describes himself as an artist whose medium is architecture.
His designs are the result of the interplay of building function, local conditions and materials, and images of cultural memory. For more than half a century, he has been creating buildings that combine artistic conviction and social interaction. At the center of his thinking is the human being, which is why he sees the task of architects as creating shelter for people: whether from bombs, sun or rain, the organizers of the Berlin exhibition write.
The exhibition, which opened on November 25, presents drawings and models created as part of the architect's projects for the Mitte district of Berlin in the 1990s and is, the organizers write, an overview of the reality built from Hecker's designs.
