About this talk

Running time: 32 minutes

Polish-born American architect Daniel Libeskind was thrown into the international spotlight when he won the competition to rebuild New York's World Trade Centre. His deconstructivist buildings include the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester and the extension to the Denver Art Museum.

Here, he discusses the Royal Ontario Museum, his most ambitious building to date at the time, which opened in June 2007. He describes breaking the rules with his competition entry, 17 conceptual sketches on the back of 17 napkins; his inspirations, which included snowflakes and the museum's crystal collection; the controversy that greeted his dramatic building and why a group of school children were his most insightful critics.