MAIDAN

The proposal for the National Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes and Revolution of Dignity Museum is located in the heart of Kiev. Kiev is not only the capital, but also the most populated city in Ukraine. The project aims to commemorate the events that were unleashed on the 21st of November of 2013 and came to an end, just ideally, in the worst conditions: 107 citizens were killed, and many others were injured, affecting both civilians and police forces. It is an arduous task to face such a delicate issue as human dignity by using  architecture. The project interprets these complicated issues by using the symbolic-formal archetype of the ‘ascending itinerary’ throughout a tale that guides visitors from the moment they come into the building, walking around the internal garden of one hundred birches towards the inside of an impressive monolith that gives shelter to the permanent exhibition. At the end of this itinerary the visitor reaches the summit, where Maidan square can be contemplated from the far distance. A void, perceived as a presence, and the journey to its inside are, therefore, the two topics chosen to generate a space able to evoking and reconnecting the past and present events of Maidan.

[…Aligned with the courtyard axis and establishing a frontal and direct relation with it, emerges eventually, the most outstanding element of the project. The external geometrical grid has continuity to the inside of the main volume as a structure. This abstract monolithic block will host the permanent exhibition. Inside the volume, thick inhabited walls surround the large void, housing more intimate and collected exhibition rooms. In this way, the space allows the exhibition moments of tranquility and meditation and connects, with stairs and elevators, the small rooms to the central platforms. When reaching the upper level, the visitor finds the denouement of the journey: the panoramic area, presided over by a large window, the only opening of the monolith. From this point you can see Maidan Square from a distance, the nerve center of the protests.
A path that leads back to the starting point, to commemorate events and not repeat them. A journey within a void, for a catharsis of the spirit, a revival of the soul, a rebirth of man, of a human dignity...]

(Extracted by the report of the project)