Memorial for the Victims of Violence in Medellin

Public competition organized by Medellín`s Mayor Office.

The archaic and the primitive.

The most basic actions to remember someone in the landscape have been carried out through the stacking of stones, wood or materials found on the site. Stonehenge, the work of Michael Heizer, Joseph Bueys or Andy Goldsworty are examples of extractions from the earth that, upon coming to the surface, acquire a new value: revealing, paying homage to and offering the hidden to light.

For our project, the archaic and primitive is present in matter and geometry. The pure forms: circles, squares and triangles, are the forms of the history of architecture, the origin of things and space. The primitive and the archaic build the idea of contradiction, plays on balance, defines the mass, the heavy over the light, the fragile supports the strong, the horizontal supports the vertical, and it is in this series of contradictions that space is defined.

The memorial.

The memorial is a space for reflection and reference, a space for history to talk about what happened: memory; but also, an optimistic place of comprehension, understanding and fraternity. It is a place for humanity to reflect.

Our memorial is a concrete sphere section cast on site, on the ground as a formwork, to remember the imperfection of that place and our condition. This piece is supported by 4 stone columns, each one made of three cubes stacked of the axis. These props remind us of the fragility of man and his actions.

Above the sphere section, a light tower 25 m high and empty inside reminds us of the connection between earth and sky, in the manner of a contemporary obelisk. For the Egyptians, the obelisk was a petrified ray of light, for us it is a living, changing and dynamic ray of light. Instead of being only superficial, in the day the light is guided through a rough void, made from some of the rubble of Monaco Building, towards the center of the memorial, where in the ground a 5m hole deep with a golden surface and with the names and years of all the victims allows to give an eternal light to those who perish, this center is empty due to their absence, but indicating through the memory of their names the strength of the actions of those to build a better country.

The arboretum, the park and life.

The arboretum is the best intervention strategy in the landscape, each tree is a fallen from the war, but at the same time, in an optimistic and positive way, it is a life that generates life. A tree is a memory that shows us its splendor in each flowering period, a constant spring. Therefore the arboretum is a memory and a public space at the same time.

Where terror lived once, today only gathering, life and the notion of the public will inhabit, that place where we meet to be tolerant, exchange and seek a better future.