Competition: Monument Configuration at the Evangelos Florakis naval base [2013]
Team: Loukas Toxnitis, Loukas Hadjimichael, Joanna Jossif, Maria A. Aristidou
Location: Mari, Cyprus
Type: Competition

On the 11th of July 2011, containers of explosives stored at the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base in Cyprus self detonated. The explosion killed 13 people and injured 62. The architectural competition was announced to commemorate the victims of the incident.

Our proposal for the memorial space consisted of a path and circulation network where the visitor can experience the destruction site walking among the new and the remaining structures (water tank, sentry box) after the explosion.

The circulation network is divided in two types. The first one connects the entrance, the chapel, the water tank and the memorial space. The second path connects the memorial space with the scattered debris, the destroyed sentry box, the crater and ends at the chapel.

The material palette is made from the materials that existed on site: concrete, steel and earth, reconstructed to create the new memory scape.

The memorial is placed within an immediate visual connection to the crater. Sixty two oxidized cylinders are placed around a symbolic center which represents the explosion and  within that center thirteen cylinders that are distinct from the rest have a stainless steel cylinder - representing the spiritual state of humans - coming out of the oxidized cylinders representing the material existence.