Front Row

An international figure in architecture Daniel Libeskind is renowned for his ability to evoke cultural memory in buildings.Born in Poland in 1946, Libeskind emigrated to the United States as a teenager and performed as a musical virtuoso, before eventually leaving music to study architecture. He began his career as an architectural theorist and professor, holding positions at various institutions around the world. In 1989, he won the international competition to build the Jewish Museum in Berlin. A series of influential museum commissions followed, including Imperial War Museum North, Manchester; Denver Art Museum; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; Royal Ontario Museum; and the Military History Museum, Dresden. In 2003, Studio Libeskind won another historic competition-to create a master plan for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.In this extended interview, Daniel Libeskind gives John Wilson insights into his design process and the sometimes surprising artistic inspirations