Daniel Libeskind, the celebrated architect behind the Jewish Museum in Berlin, has agreed to design an extension for it as part of an £8.5 million project.

The new building, expected to involve three oblique cube structures, will open in 2011, with work set to start next month.

Located next to the current museum, on the site of a former flower market, the extension will be used as an academy, housing archives, a library and classrooms.

Mr Libeskind’s design for the museum in the German capital was hailed as a triumph when it opened in 2001, despite being his first major project.

The Polish-born architect, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, is now one of the most famous in his field.

Since working on the Berlin museum, the 64-year-old has also worked on Copenhagen’s Danish Jewish Museum and the £40 million Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.

He was designated the "master planner" of the redevelopment of the Ground Zero site in New York after the September 11 attacks.

Germanys Culture Secretary, Andre Schmitz, praised the plan and said: “Berlin will be adorned with another spectacular Libeskind building.”

More than a quarter of a million people visit the Berlin museum every year.