A Holocaust memorial will appear in Victoria Tower Gardens, near Westminster Palace, where the British Parliament sits. It will be dedicated to the memory of six million Jews who died, as well as all other victims of the Nazis - gypsies, homosexuals, people with disabilities. An underground educational center is also planned, which will provide a context for the memorial above it. In addition to the history of the Holocaust, including on its basis, the center will tell about the forms of hatred and prejudice that exist in modern society: anti-Semitism, extremism, Islamophobia, homophobia, racism, etc. The state has allocated 50 million pounds for the implementation of the project, the rest of the funds will be collected in the course of fundraising.
92 projects took part in the international competition, ten of them reached the final (Archi.ru
talked about them here). In addition to the first prize for the Adjaye Associates team, Ron Arad Architects and Gustafson Porter + Bowman, the jury awarded two honorable mentions - Dubliners heneghan peng architects (known in Russia as the authors of the NCCA project on Khodynka) and the Canadian studio Diamond Schmitt Architects, which designed the Mariinsky-2.
The project of the winners was noted by the jury for their attention to the context. The authors placed the memorial at the southern edge of the park to preserve its role as a green space. However, David Adjaye stressed that he was also inspired by the role of Victoria Tower Gardens as a "park of British conscience": there is a monument to women's rights activist Emmeline Pankhurst, Auguste Rodin's sculptural group "Citizens of Calais" and the Buxton Memorial Fountain - in memory of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834.
The Holocaust Memorial will be visible from afar thanks to its bronze "slats": their upper part will be visible from afar due to a small artificial hill, attracting attention. The twenty-two aisles between these twenty-three plates represent the number of countries where Jewish communities were destroyed during the Holocaust. To get inside, the visitor will have to go through one of these openings alone, and from each of them there is a well-thought-out path. But they all gather at the "Threshold" - in a large hall that serves as a place for reflection, as well as a transition to the underground educational center. In the center are the Hall of Testimonies and the Courtyard of Meditations - a silent space with eight bronze panels. When leaving the memorial, the visitor will have a classic view of the Parliament building - and the “reality of democracy”.
