The centre is the outcome of an international architectural competition, in which the scheme selected for execution won third prize. To overcome the constraints of the narrow site, the architects divided the complex into three sections. The synagogue and community building at the two ends are autonomous elements that are nevertheless related to each other. They flank a central courtyard with a grove of 16 plane trees and a reminiscence of the first synagogue on this site, erected by Gottfried Semper in 1838. The footprint of the earlier building is marked by an area of crushed glass in a bed of tamped sand.
The size and proportions of the site did not allow the building to be constructed with a precise east orientation – the direction in which prayers are addressed. Nevertheless, the architects managed to comply with these ritual needs. At the corners, each of the 34 courses of the block walls (in 60 × 120 × 60 cm purpose-made blocks) is offset to the one below by 6 cm, so that the building seems to twist upwards about its axis until the exact orientation is attained. The distorted cube is corbelled out (or set back) at the corners by 1.80 m.
The new synagogue was conceived both as a permanent temple (the Temple of Solomon) and as a tabernacle – the movable tent that formed the sanctuary for the ark of the covenant. The architects found a convincing interpretation of this in the solid external wall construction and the softly draped, golden metal fabric internally in the altar area. Daylight enters solely via the roof light and entrance portal and is supplemented by artificial ceiling and wall lighting. The reflecting threads of the metal fabric cause the “tent” to shimmer gold. The pendant to the synagogue, the three-storey community centre, is virtually closed on three sides, where it is linked with the surroundings only by narrow slit windows. In contrast, the glazed north face of the building opens on to the courtyard.
