9/11 Pentagon Memorial.

The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial was just inaugurated this morning in Arlington County Virgina, 7 years after the horrendous terrorist attacks took place on American soil. The Memorial is the result of a competition won by KBAS Studio, who worked closely with the families of the victims. The 184 granite-and-steel benches in the Memorial park represent each of the victims killed by the Al Qaeda attack on the Pentagon. Prefabrication and computer modeling were vital on the design and construction process of this Memorial. Below is the architect’s description of the project.

Adjacent to the point of impact of American Airlines Flight 77, the Pentagon Memorial is a place like no other. Inviting personal interpretation on the part of the visitor, the Memorial provokes thought yet does not prescribe what to think or how to feel. Both individual and collective in nature, the Memorial intends to record the sheer magnitude of that tragic day by embedding layers of specificity that begin to tell the story of those whose lives were taken.

Organized by a timeline based on the ages of these individuals, 184 Memorial Units are uniquely placed along Age Lines parallel with the trajectory of Flight 77– each marking a birth-year, ranging from 1998 to 1930. Highly articulate in its form and placement, the Memorial Unit is the heart of the project, as each Unit demarcates a special place dedicated to each individual. As such, directional orientation inherent to the cantilevered Unit provides specificity to whether an individual was aboard Flight 77 or in the Pentagon at the time of impact. Each individual’s name is engraved at the end of the cantilever, hovering above a pool of water that glows with light at night. Fully designed in a 3-dimensional computer modeling environment, the Memorial Unit will be produced through Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) technologies and cast in a highly specialized Stainless Steel.







Source: Arch Daily.