Little Mehrin – Moravian Jewish Museum

man	člověk	man
journey	cesta	journey
eternity	věčnost	eternity

MEHRIN PROJECT – HISTORY IN STORIES

The MEHRIN project aims to commemorate the history of significant Jewish settlements in Moravia and specific Jewish families, including those who chose to leave Judaism and/or adopted other religions.

Part of the Moravian Jewish Museum will be a Holocaust documentation center in Moravia. The new building, designed by the renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and his team according to their winning proposal, will also become a vibrant public space in the broader city center with a well-equipped library, a multifunctional hall for lectures, screenings, and exhibitions, as well as an educational center for children and youth. It will also include a café.

SMALL MEHRIN

However, before this extensive project is realized, we intervened and proposed modifications to a non-residential space on Vídenská Street in Brno, which the Mehrin Foundation has rented and where the so-called SMALL MEHRIN will temporarily reside, hosting exhibitions, meetings, and discussions with people who have something to say about Jewish Moravia. It will serve as a stepping stone for the large Mehrin.

To ensure the space aligns with the nature of the events held, it was necessary to unify it in a simple way – giving it a cohesive, clearly readable character corresponding to its content.

The result of our work is an optical connection of three main rooms, creating at least partially continuous main space for the required activities. This was achieved by unifying the ceiling lights and creating a circular opening between the first and second rooms (responding to the existing semicircular opening in the next room).

Another input from us was to eliminate existing disruptive elements, design a reception desk, and separate (create) a small back office. For this, we used atypical carpentry products made from stained birch plywood. The dark pieces form the centerpiece of the reception desk with a small showcase, storage space, and prominent backrest. It connects with other rooms through a continuous cover over the heating, which also serves as a bench for a weary visitor to sit on. In contrast, elements made from light-stained plywood are used: adjustable “shelves” behind the reception, the perimeter of the newly created circular opening, and the “filling” between the new kitchenette and exhibition room, where the upper part serves as a display showcase and the lower part is used for the back office.

To visually block street noise, the windows are equipped with new translucent shades in the same color as the plaster and in line with the frames.

A notable feature of the entrance area is the aforementioned adjustable shelves, which are placed on pegs inserted in circular openings that form suggests of David's stars. The individual shelves create stylized Hebrew letters, which in turn form words. In three rows, the words JOURNEY – MAN – ETERNITY can be read, which refer to the main topics of interest of the entire institution.

From the David’s star, which was completely decomposed into individual sides, simple decorations on the radiator covers and showcases also emerge. We wanted to apply the same principle to the creation of showcases and stands in the spaces of the individual rooms that would be used during exhibitions. Unfortunately, this did not occur, and the Foundation took a different approach to the exhibition solutions.

Currently, only the entrance floor has been realized. Modifications to the connecting basement should follow smoothly, after addressing moisture issues and electrical installation problems.