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WELLS OF MEMORY

Location:  Brussels
Type:
  â€‹Urban Design
Year:  2019
Client:  The European Commission
Prizes and Recognition: 40/40 List of Promising Young Architects

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Description: The totalitarian regimes of Europe and their victims form a wound in the continent’s history. Remembering these past events enables the European community to reconcile with its history, while understanding the importance of democracy, unity, tolerance and diversity. The memory of the victims should be commemorated as a part of the urban everyday life, allowing each individual to experience the lost, in order to promote a process of collective reconciliation. The piazza was therefore designed as a grid of continuous concrete slabs, signifying the history of the European continent. The rapture created in the grid symbolizes the traumatic events created by the different totalitarian regimes, which scared all nations of the union. The pedestrian bridges created over the rapture signify the unity of the European nations, which enables the continent to move forward while remembering and confronting its past, as it ties the memory of the victims to the everyday urban life of Brussels. The pedestrian paths created four different wells, which allow the individuals passing through to stop and linger, enabling a personal experience of reflection and contemplation. Testimonies of a variety of victims will be engraved on the walls of each well, assigning a specific well to each group. The fourth well will be dedicated to the collective memory of all victims, as its walls will hold the engraving of the words Never Again in the languages of the victims. The water connecting the four wells, symbolizes the shared memory, and the shared future. The project was selected for the 2021 40-UNDER-40 exhibition for young promising architects in Jaffa.

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© Studio Sabra

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