Passing through the camp

Passing through the camp Victoria Gerasimova, AD3 Mitchell Znamenacek, AD5 Studio Wertig/Kopecky

Research - memorial precedent studies - site history and analysis - abstract models

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, United States

Magadan

- parking and entrance area - long walking path - the sculpture zone - viewing point

Memorial precedent studies During the first week, we studied memorials from different countries.

One of them is The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in America, which was built in 1982 by twenty-one year old bachelor’s student Maya Lin: «I imagined taking a knife and cutting into the earth, opening it up, an initial violence and pain that in time would heal. The grass would grow back, but the initial cut would remain a pure flat surface in the earth with a polished, mirrored surface, much like the surface on a geode when you cut it and polish the edge. The need for the names to be on the memorial would become the memorial; there was no need to embellish the design further. The people and their names would allow everyone to respond and remember.»

Another one is Mask of Sorrow in Russia, which was built by Ernst Neizvestny and Kamil Kazaev. They used the landscape and different levels of it, huge scale of sculpture, reconstructing the atmosphere of prisoners’ being in the camps to evoke feelings.

Mask of Sorrow, Russia

1 - Train station Mirovice 2 - Cemetery Mirovice 3 - Camp 4 - Mass Graves 5 - Quarry 6 - Pond Lipes

Photos from the site - mass graves - existing memorial - pig farm

Site history and analysis The camp ‘Lety u Pisky’ was opened on the 8th of August 1940 as a forced labour camp. The prisoners were healthy men over 18, classified as “persons adverse to working”.

In the beginning of 1942, the camp’s purpose entrusted into a concentration camp. Between 1940 and 1942, 700 prisoners went through the Lety forced labour camp and later concentration camp.

68 of them were registered with the letter “G” in front of their names, signifying “Gypsy”.

1309 people went through the camp and 326 did not survive the cruel conditions of the camp.

The camp was abolished on the 9th of August 1943. The prisoners’ barracks were burned and the whole place was razed to the ground.

For many years after, it was used as communal pasture.

In the 1970s, a large-scale pig farm was founded in the camp’s immediate vicinity. As the farm grew and added more buildings, it covered most of the former camp. It was in operation until the spring of 2018. On the 23rd of November 2017, the state signed a contract on buying the pig farm. The Museum of Romani Culture took over the farm area in the April of 2018 and the Czech state entrusted it with managing the location, with the prospect of building a memorial there.

Unity

Isolation

Abstract models Emotions: - Unity Despite the fear, and isolation from being displaced from their homes, and despite being forced to live in camps and work purposeless jobs from their culture’s point of view, they managed to stay together as a people and persevere. A strong sense of identity would keep the Roma people together despite efforts to break families apart.

- Isolation There are two different sides of isolation for the Roma people: their own isolation- an effect of their nomadic lifestyle, and forced isolationwhen they were brought away from their homes and families by an oppressive regime and placed into camps.

- Fear Being forced to leave one’s current home, hunger, and uncertainty of the future must have made the Roma people fearful for the lives of themselves and their families. Unfamiliar sights and places would contribute to the fear the Roma people experienced. Seeing their loved ones being sent away, or killed in front of them must have been an unforgettable sight. They most likely wondered how long this would go on for, without ever being told an answer.

Fear

Concept - concept development - concept diagram

Concept journal

Concept development The concept for the project is to connect the past, present, and future of the site with the use of paths located on distinct axes based on former and existing elements of the site. These paths connect the different parts of the project, creating a logical order to an immersive emotional experience for the visitor. The project incorporates the existing pig farm structures, the former boundary and footprints of the concentration camp, and the existing pieta located at the site.

Initial concept diagram

Current situation

Pig farm demolition

Project completion

10 years

50 years

Models of the memorial

Elevation of the memorial

Memorial development

Models of the memorial

Models of cube museum

Cube museum concept

Museum development

Underground museum concept diagram

Underground museum concept

A

B

C

Concept A - The existing buildings that served as the pig farm will remain on site as a reminder of how both the Nazis and developers of the pig farm adapted the site for their needs. Neither of the former occupiers of the property considered the lives being held there as dignified. The pig farm structures will be demolished steadily over time as nature takes its course in and around the area.

B - The location of the concentration camp and the current memorial are used as focal points on which the museum and new memorial will be situated C - Paths are created along axes between the focal points, connecting the old and new elements of the project while shaping the trajectory of those visiting the site.

D - The museum is placed within the boundary of the concentration camp, while the footprints of the structures in the former concentration camp are delineated by skylights.

D

Design - paths - museum - memorial

B

A’

B’

Site plan Scale 1:2000 N

A

Paths Walking paths connecting the different elements of the project will serve as a space for reflection.

The length of the paths is 780 meters, which takes a person approximatey 15 minutes to walk through. During this time the surroundings change every 2 minutes. Paths descending below ground to the past (museum) from through the present (pig farms).

Under the ground, visitors find the museum. After some time spent there, and upon exiting the museum they are set on another path to the next part of the project. This second path takes visitors away from the museum and pig farms through a forest to the memorial at the end of the path. Along this path they will find names of the victims.

B

A’

B’

Site plan Scale 1:2000 N

A

A

A

B

Sections Scale 1:1000; 1:500

B’

View of museum from the ground

Museum The museum, which is situated underground, will provide space for the exhibition, educational, administrative, and storage functions related to the needs of the Museum of Romani Culture.

Inside, a seemingly infinite number of columns stand sparsely or densely - fading away proportionally to the dispersed light entering the museum from skylights. Flexibility of the museum space is aided by the columns, between which temporary walls can be placed, and the floor system, which can be raised or lowered. A wide variety of programmatic areas -an amphitheatre for lectures or performances, workshops spaces, exhibition spaces with walls for posters and tables for artifacts- are contained within the museum.

A’

B’

B

A

Floor plan Scale 1:500

N

Detail model of the museum Scale 1:25

A’

B’

B

A

Floor plan Scale 1:500

N

Exhibition and workshop

Exhibition and lecture

Exhibition and event

A

Sections Scale 1:500

A’

B

B’

View inside museum Section Scale 1:500

View of path and memorial

Memorial A new memorial consisting of 326 blocks, which represents the number of people who lost their lives in the concentration camp, is situated adjacent to the existing memorial and goes down to the pond disappearing under the water. Blocks made with granite which connects it to existing pieta.

It is a place of dignity and it provides space to reflect, pay respects, and mourn for the victims.

Site model Scale 1:2000

ARCHIP 2019/2020