Armin Valter and Joel Kopli shared with us their competition winning proposal for the Memorial of Victims of Communism in Estonia. Situated on/in northern coastal limestone cliff near town Paldiski, which was a closed military nuclear submarine base in soviet times, their design attempts to revitalize the place and bring more awareness to people of the region. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The memorial is taking inspiration from strong metaphysical feeling in this landscape. Architecture of the memorial contains symbolic features, which is here to discover by the visitors. Large 20 m deep and 20 m diameter hole is cut into the limestone cliff. When inside, this surrounds the visitor like the Iron Curtain in soviet times. Spiral staircase leading from upper level to the bottom is like the element of uncertainty, which was common in soviet society. When passing through the staircase, visitor do not see the beginning or the end of the stair. This leads to journey without knowing the length nor the position on the path, just like the emotions were under the communist regime.
