A memorial park dedicated to the tragedy in Kiev appeared in the American Denver back in 1982. It is called Babi Yar Park. The territory of 11 hectares was allocated in 1969, and the expressive landscape project was developed by the famous modernist designers Lawrence Halprin and Satoru Nishita. The basis of the plan was the image of the Star of David, the tops of its rays resting on the amphitheater, grove and ravine. The entrance to the park is decorated with two black granite monoliths. In 2011, on the initiative of Denver Parks & Recreation and the Mizel Museum, landscape architects Mundus Bishop carried out the modernization and restoration of the park. Babi Yar search engines send Internet users to Denver. Not in Kyiv.
The circular square is one of the focal points of Babi Yar Park in Denver, USA. Photo: Heather Collins. Image source: The Landscape Architecture of Lawrence Halprin
Site plan of Babi Yar Park, Denver, USA. Image source: The Landscape Architecture of Lawrence Halprin
The more years separate us from the tragedy, the more powerful means of expression are needed so that the word "Holocaust" does not become an abstraction for the new generation. Memorial parks, centers and monuments, built on different continents in the middle of the last century, are being carefully restored today, and some are being reconstructed to meet the changed requirements that we have for museums and public places. Every year, we learn about the opening of new Holocaust monuments and museums in different parts of the world - in Ottawa, Philadelphia, Bologna, Warsaw, as well as about competitions and projects that propose to consolidate the past and the present with a physical connection with the help of stone, concrete, wood and metal. After all, what is forgotten can be repeated again and again, and humanity permanently suffers from loss of declarative memory.
Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, Poland. The "Sea of Reeds" project by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects won the international competition, which included the offices of Daniel Libeskind, Kengo Kuma, Peter Eisenman and David Chipperfield. The founder of Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects, Rainer Mahlamäki, is a member of the jury of the competition for the Babiy Yar Holocaust Memorial Center project. Photo: Pawel Paniczko
A recent example: a scandal erupted in Jerusalem itself in mid-February 2019. Local developers cut down the memorial grove, planted 30 years ago in honor of the diplomat Tyune Sugihara, who, working at the embassy in Lithuania, saved more than 5 thousand people. Jews, opened Japanese transit visas for them. The son of the Japanese Schindler, Nobuka Sugihara, reported that residential houses appeared on the site of the memorial grove. The Jewish National Fund stated that they were not aware of the developer's intentions and began an investigation into the incident.
Memorial architecture is an attempt to connect the past and the present with a physical connection
In London, the construction of a memorial dedicated to the memory of 6 million victims of the Nazis, which is planned to be built according to the project of David Adjaye in a park area near the British Parliament building, is disputed by the Royal Parks organization, whose members fear that the construction process and the increase in the flow of visitors will damage the green spaces of the Victoria Gardens . The initiators of the protest do not dispute the very fact of the need to create a memorial center, but insist on changing the location — and this can delay the implementation of the project for at least an hour or two.
The organic architecture of the interior spaces of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw is a reference to the biblical story of the passage of the Jewish people across the Red Sea.
Photo: Daniel Olszynski
Similar cases, as well as the discussions that have erupted around the methods of perpetuating the memory of the victims, show that the Holocaust is a topic that is painful not only for Ukraine, which is experiencing an identity crisis, but also for the whole world.
Memorial center: sacred, cultural and educational
The organization of the international competition for the project of the Babiy Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC) was entrusted to the German consulting company [phase eins]. No wonder - this is one of the most authoritative companies with a world name, a professional in the field of conducting international architectural competitions. In addition, they have already been involved in conducting a competition for the project of the Museum of the Revolution of Dignity, organized a competition for Mystetskyi Arsenal, which means they are familiar with Ukrainian realities and peculiarities of the legislation.
The results of the primary selection of participants of the competition were announced on February 1 at a press conference in the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center. Photo: BYHMC
The memorial center will not be just a museum. It is designed to perform several functions: museum, memorial, educational, research, to become a symbol of a tolerant society and a place for communication. The design territory is two adjacent plots. One is intended for the construction of a building, the other will be turned into a landscape park. An old Jewish cemetery, closed even before the Second World War, is located within the boundaries of the plots.
The Babiy Yar Holocaust Memorial Center will become a symbol of a tolerant society
Yana Barynova, executive director and strategy director of BYHMC, comments on the situation with the cemetery as follows: "Today there is a common opinion about the location of the Jewish cemetery. It enters the plot that is leased by our foundation and is part of the memorial space. We will have to protect it, which is also a component of the competitive task for architects. Everything happens under the supervision of the rabbis of Ukraine, the European Union and Israel."
Plan of the design area. Image source: [phase eins].
Applications for participation were submitted by 165 architectural studios, offices and architects from 36 countries. The greatest interest in the competition was shown by architects from Turkey, Germany, Ukraine, Italy, the USA, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. 10 applicants passed the qualifying selection.
Director of the company [phase eins]. Benjamin Hossbach demonstrates the design territory to the competition participants. Photo: BYHMC
The long list included BURØ architects (Ukraine), Diller Scofidio + Renfro (USA), Dorte Mandrup A / S (Denmark), Eisenman Architects (USA), KAAN Architecten (Netherlands), merz merz (Germany), Querkraft Architekten (Austria ), RICHTER MUSIKOWSKI Architekten (Germany), Studio Odile Decq (France), Wolfgang Tschapeller (Austria).
By April 4, the participants of the first round will have to develop an architectural concept, in May the jury will decide who goes to the second round, and the winner will be announced on July 30. After that, Kyivites will be able to visit an exhibition of projects that participated in the competition.
The modern topography at the site of the tragedy in Babi Yar is significantly different from the historical one
Benjamin Hossbach, director of the [phase eins] company, says: "This is not a project of a few experts, but a project of the people of Ukraine and even more. And this is a serious challenge for architects, since the landscape of Baby Yar is very complex in the sense that the location is an authentic place of a historical event, but the topography itself has changed significantly. And we are very interested in how architects will solve the problem, with the help of which ideas they will try to give this landscape meaning and meaning for future generations."
Documentary evidence of the tragedy in Babi Yar. Photo by the German photographer Johannes Halle, taken in early October 1941 after mass shootings. Image source: Archive of the Hamburg Institute for Social Studies
The exact budget for the implementation of the project will become known after the winner of the competition is named. The amount can reach $80-100 million, and these will not be funds from the state or local budgets. Gennady Verbylenko, general director of the "Babiy Yar" Holocaust Memorial Center, says: "The sources of funding are the funds of private patrons. International non-governmental organizations will also be connected. After the completion of the architectural competition, we plan to announce a massive fundraiser to which anyone can join."
The tombstones of the old Jewish cemetery, closed even before the Second World War, are included in the exposition of the lapidary of the National Historical and Memorial Reserve "Babiy Yar". Photo: Andrey Vetoshkin
"We are looking for reasonable and sensible solutions"
$100 million is a uniquely large budget for a cultural object not only by Ukrainian standards. The large-scale reconstruction of the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, according to the project of Moshe Safda, cost this amount. The architect designed the building in the form of a concrete tunnel cut into the hill. The construction lasted more than 10 years, the new cultural memorial center was opened on March 15, 2005 in the presence of the leaders of 40 countries of the world.
According to Moshe Safda, the 183 m long concrete gorge cutting through the hill is a metaphorical scar on the heart of the Jewish people. Image source: Wikimedia Commons
Israeli architect Dov Alon, a partner in Alon Kahan Architects, who came to Ukraine in February as part of the EU4BUSINESS program, considers Yad Vash to be the most significant memorial in the world devoted to the theme of the Holocaust: "This is an impressive example of the high degree of impact of form and content on visitors. At the same time, it is striking how subtly and carefully the idea was implemented in relation to nature. The fact that the construction of a memorial is planned in Kyiv is extremely important. History cannot be discarded. Sometimes it seems to me that somehow we lose respect for those who were killed during the Second World War.
The reconstruction of the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, according to the project of architect Moshe Safda, cost $100 million
In order to evoke a response, modern memorial buildings and structures do not have to be dressed in granite or marble. "Yad Vashem is a vivid example of a symbolic building. The materials used are the simplest - wood, concrete, but the construction, philosophy of the building and its very idea are so strong that they do not need to be emphasized with any details or special material. Symbolism is achieved due to form, the play of light and shadow," says Dov's colleague Alexander Kushnareva, an architect from the Israeli bureau A. Lerman Architects Ltd.
The names of authoritative contemporary architects — Daniel Libeskind, Peter Eisenman, Moshe Safda — are associated with unique objects dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. They can be considered the founders of a new approach, the creators of the labyrinth building typology, where architecture itself becomes a guide through time, tragic memories and impressions.
Nine underground galleries branch off from the main Yad Vashem gorge hall. Image source: Wikimedia Commons
The visitor is deliberately immersed in an uncomfortable environment in order to awaken empathy and lead to thoughts about the senselessness of wars and the destruction of nations, the absence of justification for terror, the need for reconciliation and tolerance. Architecture becomes an expression of uncompensated losses, sometimes deliberately revealing an ambivalent attitude to memory. In this way, the architecture of the counter-memorial is strikingly different from the traditional monument-shrine with unambiguous national and authoritarian narratives.
The architecture of the counter-monument becomes a means of expressing uncompensated losses
Benjamin Hossbach, director of the company [phase eins]., is very careful when it comes to the criteria of the competitive evaluation and the jury's preferences: "We are looking for reasonable solutions and at the same time emotional ones. All this will be detailed when we start comparing the projects. It is possible that the designers will offer us some amazing architectural form, but it is possible that it will be "quiet" architecture."
Did the architects use the "principle of counter-monument" when creating the "Babiy Yar" Holocaust Memorial Center, will its building become the focal point of the entire district, or will it be ascetic, "quiet" architecture? We will find out about it already on July 30, when the jury will announce the winner.
The memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Berlin was designed by Peter Eisenman as a field of more than 2 gray concrete blocks. Image source: pxhere.com
In the middle of February, representatives of architectural bureaus included in the long list came to Kyiv to get acquainted with the context and personally inspect the project site. We managed to talk with several of them. According to the terms of the competition, we could not ask questions about the idea and concept of the projects.
Odil Dekk (Studio Odile Decq), Benjamin Gilmartin (Diller Scofidio + Renfro), Felix Klaus and Kyis Kaan (KAAN Architecten), Erdem Tuzun (Eisenman Architects), Alexey Pakhomov and Anton Oleynyk (BURØ architects (Ukraine) told us about modern approaches to memory architecture.
