Memorial and Museum in Judenplatz in Vienna

After six years’ planning and construction work, this Holocaust commemorative complex has now been completed. It comprises a museum; a controversial memorial by the artist Rachel Whiteread, which forms the centrepiece of thesquare; and a space below the memorial, designed by the architects to exhibit the ruined walls of a synagogue destroyed in 1421. Housed in a Baroque building that formerly belonged to a Jewish religious fraternity, the museum contains computer reconstructions and original documents that provide a historical picture of Jewish life in Vienna. In the museum’s restrained interior, the new building elements are clearly distinguished from the existing fabric. The mechanical services are concealed behind cladding.