Next Project

Balti Memorial: The sequestered courtyard

Part 2 Project 2013
Cosmin Anghelache
Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism | Romania
The courtyard as the camp; The fence as a museum; The house as the memorial

The proposed courtyard represents the camp, a sequestered space, whose memory is protected from the rest of the context by enclosure. This area is observed from the space defined by the limit, represented as a museum, which mediates the relationship between past and future, filtering the information and creating coherence. The building defines the limit of the enclosed space in which the cross and the mound will not be stepped on anymore. The limit will be discovered through differently proportioned spaces that communicate only with the courtyard, using materials and the effects that put the visitor in different states of being.

The main goal of the project is to create a limit that places the visitor, the community and the city outside of it, in the exterior, in freedom.

After entering the site (1) following the path trough the forest (2) the visitor arrives at the memorial’s entrance (3). The entry space is the only indoor space illuminated from the top (4). The first to view is “Remains” (5), gathering the things brought to the memorial. A narrow exterior space (2.7m high) that focuses on the courtyard. Following is a dark transitory space (6) that connects the outdoor space with the first indoor space. “Mist” (7) sets an obscure scene for a room that exhibits audio/visual elements projected on fog. After which a tight transition (8) makes the way for a narrow corridor (9) that pushes the visitor between the land gathered from the site and closer to the courtyard.

The last transitory space (10), connecting the narrow corridor into the vastest space in the building. The reflective space (11) uses the highly polished surfaces of the walls to multiply the courtyard facing wall creating an infinite number of perforations viewed on all directions. The perforated wall which consists of 50.000 perforations throughout the building; holes where relatives and visitors can leave objects and share memories of the deceased, testimonials later used for establishing a coherent history that the building holds.


Tutor(s)

2013
• Page Hits: 6217         • Entry Date: 13 September 2013         • Last Update: 13 September 2013