Daniel Libeskind's spectacular architecture

With the Jewish Museum Berlin, which opened in 2001, Libeskind achieved his major breakthrough. The zinc-coated building, erected on a jagged floor plan reminiscent of a fractured Star of David, has since become a Berlin trademark that symbolically stands for the ongoing debate about the gigantic vacuum left behind by the Holocaust in German-Jewish history.

Libeskind has also unmistakably left his mark on this museum which focuses on another chapter of German history. The museum dedicated to the military history of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, was not designed to glorify Germany's army, but rather to document its violence. It also confronts visitors with their own potential for violence.

The main building, originally erected in the second half of the 19th century, was redesigned over seven years by Libeskind and opened in 2011. He split the original building with a wedge-shaped installation. It symbolizes a break with the traditional portrayal of history, while alluding to the bombing of Dresden in February 1945.

The central building of the Leuphana University of Lüneburg is another UFO designed by Daniel Libeskind. With its steel and glass facade and its slanted lines, the building is bound to become a pilgrimage location for architecture fans. It cost nearly €100 million to build and opened in 2017.

The outpost of the Imperial War Museum London, this museum designed by Libeskind opened in 2002 and has since become an integral part of Manchester's skyline. The aluminium-coated building is located on the site heavily bombed by the Germans during the Manchester Blitz in 1940. Typical of the architect's style, Libeskind designed a space leading to a feeling of disorientation.

The rapid growth of this city inspired Libeskind to create a building that seems to expand continuously. Surrounded by the breathtaking Rocky Mountains, the architecture of this art museum enables visitors to sense the connection between culture and nature. Inaugurated in 2006, the museum — like many Libeskind buildings — has become a city landmark.

The convention center in the Belgian city of Mons, completed in 2015, was also designed to allow visitors to look outside thanks to its vertical openings in the facade. Here, the architect did not work with aluminium, but instead with robinia wood. Visitors also enjoy a unique view over the city from several roof terraces with a lot of greenery.

Who, if not Libeskind, would be able to create locations that can express deep traumas in architectural forms? That also holds true for Ground Zero, the site where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center used to stand before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. But the Freedom Tower conceived by the architect, himself a resident of New York, became...

... the One World Trade Center — a far cry from Libeskind's original idea. There were arguments surrounding the design and the use of the building, as well as Libeskind's fees, according to the "The New York Times." At least one thing has survived these disagreements: Libeskind's concept for the huge area once filled by the Twin Towers.

Libeskind had planned this building as a private home that, since 2011, has been used as an extraordinary reception hall for the company Rheinzink. It took only six months to erect the villa in the town of Datteln, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The idea behind it was to construct a building that seems to be growing out of the earth, like a crystal.

Libeskind can just as skillfully design luxury buildings. The project "Reflections" in Keppel Bay, Singapore, consists of six towers and 11 villa apartments, with 1,129 single apartments, all offering an exclusive view over the ocean and the city. Alternative energy sources, such as solar panels and water filters, have added to the sustainability of the project.