Western Wall| The Museum of the Wall
The general idea for the project stems from the intersection of various intentions, foremost that of ascribing the category of square to this vast urban space, recreating an urban backdrop that is capable of entering into a dialogue with the compactness of the Western Wall standing before it, yet at the same time allowing the view and access to the underlying archaeological excavations. To this double intention is added a building envisaged as a new front for the Jewish quarter overlooking the square, capable of interacting with it and establishing a direct connection with the vital flows coming from the outside.
It is for this reason that the building is envisaged as a compact and assertive mass which appears suspended in its central section. This permits the passage from the square into the building and then descending to the level of the archaeological site which thus becomes an inte- gral part of the whole.
In the proposed project, the current level of the square is continued into the building through a walkway that surrounds the entire archaeological area and distributes the various functions that face it and from which it is possible to descend to the level of the excavations themselves. On the square, in addition to various accesses which connect to the higher levels, a series of functions are envisaged linked both to the city and to the interpretation of the ruins, such as a room for temporary exhibitions, a series of areas for tourism information and orientation, a cafeteria and other miscellaneous services.
The entire building is conceived as an almost rectangular structure with an open central space over which the volume of the auditorium is suspended and linked to various levels of the building. This solution permits maintaining a central space which, although near both the archaeological level and the square, is as open and naturally illuminated as possible, so as not to need any load-bearing structures which could otherwise be in conflict with the archaeological remains. The archaeological site is thus appreciated in its complete integrity.
The building has two different levels of access, a lower one at the level of the square, and an upper one at the level of the current pedestrian path that separates the archaeological area from the Jewish quarter, thus providing the building with both planimetric and altimetric con- nections to the surrounding urban fabric.
The upper levels of the building house a mix of functions including a Centre for Documentation, a Museum of the Wall and a hall for conferences and projections.
The exhibition area is placed in the wing that faces the square and the Wall, however its connection to them is filtered and oriented by the vertical openings which allow to glimpse rather than to see their luminous presence. The middle floor is detached from the wall and allows the light from the skylight to illuminate the entire facade.
The treatment of the facades is different depending on whether they are facing the ruins or the exterior. There is thus a dichotomy between the exterior and the internal courtyard which gives a massive, silent, and mysterious appearance to the building on the side facing the city and is more vibrant and porous toward the interior. The facades overlooking the empty space are in fact characterised by a greater expressiveness and are formed by thin vertical elements in stone which screen off the glass windows behind them. This results in a great ho-mogenisation which mitigates the expressive nature of the theme. The only exception to this is in proximity of the conference room which is suspended over the courtyard and on which a wide window opens that is unobstructed by the screening vertical elements. The exterior facades are intentionally void of any expressive accent. In fact the whole facade overlooking the square is characterised by the great shady passage that leads to the ruins, on which the jutting volume of the building is suspended and whose thin vertical openings provide illumination to the exhibition rooms behind.
This theme alludes to the Western Wall, interpreting with a great lev- el of abstraction the superposition of its stone masonry, whose only ex- ception is the great vertical opening which interrupts the design of the vertical cuts and offers a wonderful view over the Wall and the Dome of the Rock.
The whole volume of the building that projects over the base of the structure which contains the great passage that leads to the square has a single acute angle near the southern section of the square. This design choice derives from the fact that the main entrance to the square is from that direction, which means that the first view of the building is not frontal. It was decided to bend the volume in that direction with the purpose of generating a greater expressive tension in relation to the angle, obtained with a triangular section of shadow that results from the misalignment of the body and the base of the structure. Toward the built section of the square the building is placed next to the existing flight of steps so as to create a sense of continuity between the various urban levels, while on the opposite side a new set of steps separates the building from the surrounding buildings.
The envisaged materials are neutral and basic, such as the Jerusalem stone, used in slaps for cladding the exterior surfaces and some interiors, exposed concrete for the intradoses of the floors, plaster for a few of the interior surfaces, as well as glass, wood and weathering steel. All the interior spaces are neutral and basic and the light, often coming from above, such as in the exhibition rooms and in the conference hall, plays a fundamental role.
As a result of the fact that relationships are the true essence of the pro- ject, the building is not only a sort of plinth for the city above it, that is an element providing order and measure to the chaotic complexity of the city, but actually a new part of the city, since its interior and exte- rior spaces, and especially its roof, work as proper public spaces. The roof, for example, which can be reached from the level of the street above, serves as an extension of the living space of the square, and pro- vides places for resting and panoramas over the surrounding city. Through its section, which alternates low areas and fixed sitting ar- eas on terraced steps, stone paving and wooden platforms, it is pos- sible to envisage a sort of large inhabited bas-relief where the visitor can rest, gather or — why not? — pray, in a place where all physical obstruction to the visual perception of the city and its landscape are eliminated by the processes which establish relationships of reciprocity between the building and the city, the new and the old, the past, the present and the future. This is a proposal which attempts to develop in two directions, one which is related to the concrete dimension of matter and measure, as well as of appropriateness, and another linked to the more ineffable, yet perhaps more spiritual and therefore more important, dimension which is based on a sensitive interpretation of identities, features, themes, figures, types and languages and which in fact constitutes the essence of the contemporary project in relation to historical contexts.
