mcdowellespinosa architects

National World War 1 Memorial 

Washington, D.C.  

2015  

Type: Urban Design Competition

Project Text

A POETIC SCULPTURAL LANGUAGE

A memorial is a physical manifestation of a spiritual idea - a place to commemorate and contemplate the sacrifice of heroes who fought in the war. A sculptural language evoking the soldiers is therefore devised to this spiritual realm of memory and reverence into a spatial and material place.

A FIELD OF STEEL FIGURES

World War 1 was the first truly industrial war whose mechanistic innovation and mass production created a tragedy in a scale never seen before. To commemorate those who have served, suffered and given their lives in this monstrous, mechanistic war, a field of steel elements is created to form the scenographic narrative of the memorial.

CREATING ATMOSPHERIC SPATIAL MOMENTS

Evoking the soldiers marching on the horizon, ducking in a trench or towering to victory, these steel figures embody a spatial language capable of creating different atmospheric moments throughout the site. From the open to the contained, a landscape is thus

formed which can be explored by the visitors, encouraging the contemplation of the past event, whilst providing quality spaces for the everyday local users of the park.

A ‘LIVE’ MEMORIAL

An augmented reality component of the memorial could be overlaid onto the space via an app that would display WW1 imagery and film in visitors’ personal devices with the park as a backdrop. This flexible form of contemporary narrative brings the memorial to life. Traditional, non-digital information will also be etched into the steel and cast

into the concrete.

Credits

Design 

Rychiee Espinosa, Seth McDowell, Dominik Sigg

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Images 

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