Westside Shopping And Leisure Complex
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The Westside Shopping and Leisure Centre, on the outskirts of
Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
,
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, is a multi-use facility with shops, restaurants, a swimming pool, conference spaces, residences, a hotel, fitness centres, and a cinema. It was designed by international
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
Daniel Libeskind Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect. He is known for the design a ...
and completed in October 2008.


Design

Despite its location west of the city, in Brünnen-Bern, Westside is urban in scale. According to Studio Daniel Libeskind's website, the site brings “together the dimensions of commerce, culture and leisure." Positioned over a motorway, the centre overlooks an
S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...
station and acts as a gateway to Bern. The complex is
crystalline A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macrosc ...
in structure; a
steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...
skeleton supports the centre's
wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...
. Cuts in the roof bring the changing daylight into the center's two plazas. One plaza faces the surrounding Brünnen landscape and connects to the centre's bath, while the other plaza adjoins the hotel and cinema. Windows tumble across the façade, bringing light into the building. This design evokes the erratic matrix of windows across Libeskind's first major international success, the
Jewish Museum Berlin The Jewish Museum Berlin (''Jüdisches Museum Berlin'') was opened in 2001 and is the largest Jewish museum in Europe. On of floor space, the museum presents the history of the Jews in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present day, with new foc ...
.


Reaction

Critics, such as David Rogers of the
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
-based Jerde Partnership, have faulted Bern for neglecting to integrate such a shopping centre into the city's urban fabric. A shopping centre on the city's periphery contributes to the disintegration of the city centre and leads to a “loss of values,” he says. Defenders of Westside, such as Swiss architect Barbara Holzer, argue that Bern's urban centre is not under threat and that the shopping centre instead offers “new urban spaces.” Westside, with its blend of commercial, residential and recreational spaces, exemplifies populist architecture and emphasises public life. Peter Keller, of the
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
newspaper,
Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...
, adds that the shopping centre suits its surrounding landscape and bears the striking signature of its architect.


References


External links


Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westside Shopping And Leisure Complex Daniel Libeskind buildings Shopping malls established in 2008 Shopping malls in Switzerland Buildings and structures in Bern Tourist attractions in Bern 21st-century architecture in Switzerland