THE MEHRIN PROJECT – HISTORY IN STORIES

The MEHRIN project aims to recall the history of important Jewish settlements in Moravia and specific Jewish families, including those who decided to leave Judaism and/or embrace other religions.
The Moravian Jewish Museum will also include a Holocaust documentation center in Moravia. The new building, which will be designed by the well-known Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and his team, based on his winning design, will become a lively public space with a library, a multi-functional hall, an educational center, and a cafe.

LITTLE MEHRIN

But before this large-scale project takes place, we stepped in and designed the modification of a non-residential space on Vídeňská Street in Brno, where the so-called LITTLE MEHRIN will be located and where exhibitions, meetings and discussions will take place. It will thus become a springboard for the big Mehrin.

In order for the space to meet the needs of the events, it was necessary to give it a unifying, clearly visible character, corresponding to its content.
The result of our work is a connection of the three main rooms, achieved by unifying the ceiling lights and creating a circular opening.

Our next input was the design of the reception desk and the creation of a small utility room. We used atypical furniture made of stained birch plywood. Dark pieces create the dominant feature of the reception desk with a small showcase, storage space and a wall covering. It is connected to other rooms by a continuous heating cover, which also serves as a bench for the potentially tired visitors. For contrast, light plywood elements are used: the changeable “shelves” behind the reception desk, the lining of the newly created circular opening and the “showcase” in the third room.
A distinctive element of the entrance area is the already mentioned changeable shelves, which are inserted on pivots in circular holes, arranged in the shape of the Star of David. The individual shelves are made up of stylized Hebrew letters. In three lines you can read the words
JOURNEY – MAN – ETERNITY, referring to the main topics of interest of the entire institution.
The simple decoration on the radiator covers and the display case is also based on the shape of the Star of David. We intended to apply the same principle to the design of showcases and racks that would be used for exhibitions. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and the Foundation decided to deal with the exhibitions in their own way.

All atypical furniture was custom made from stained birch plywood. Part of the project was also a partial modification of the existing wiring, the unification of plasterboard ceilings and new light fixtures. The windows are equipped with new translucent blinds to optically block out the hustle of the street.
The only intervention into the building construction was the creation of a new circular opening in one of the walls.
Due to limited budget, the existing condition of the building was otherwise left untouched, only local adjustments and unification by white painting took place.

So far, only the entrance floor has been renovated. Modifications to the adjoining basement should continually follow up, once damp walls and wiring problems have been resolved.