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The Lost Shtetl Museum

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The Lost Shtetl Museum

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Located on the site where a former Jewish village once stood, the Lost Shtetl Museum pays reverence to the hundreds of townspeople — and thousands of others in nearby communities — who were executed during the Nazi’s reign of terror. As a reclamation of the area’s painful past, the museum’s architecture, designed by Finnish studio Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects, emulates a tranquil, dreamlike shtetl with its cluster of hipped roofs and textured marine aluminum “shingles.” As visitors move through the exhibition, black granite walls close in to convey loss. Then, at the exhibition’s end, vaulted ceilings cascade light into common areas, lifting the atmosphere.

Team: Rainer Mahlamäki with Ilkka Syrjäkari (Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects); Augustas Audėjaitis (Studija 2A); Enzo Enea (Enea Landscape Architecture); Büke Kumyol (Ralph Appelbaum Associates)