Memory and Peace Memorial

Memory and Peace Memorial Val-de-Reuil

Val-de-Reuil is a town in Normandy, with a population of about fifteen thousand people, made up of nearly fifty different nationalities-often those who have fled conflicts in their own countries. The town's brief for a monument to remembrance and peace gave the architects, associated with Catherine Mosbach and Franck Vialet, an opportunity to reflect on how to design a memorial to intangible concepts. They opted for a 37,675-sq. ft. (3,500-m2) design that retains only the absolutely essential and "eliminates anything that could be interpreted as surplus, in order to place the emphasis on what one feels in this place, more than what one sees." The inner portion of the monument was conceived as a space for up to four hundred people, who can be seated on its gently sloping steps in order to listen to music or a reading, for example. The architects state, "We did not create a particular program for the individual experience, but instead a space that can be appropriated and interpreted in many different ways. We have often been asked, 'Why the simple geometry?' Our response has always been that we wanted to stay within formal moves that were as simple as possible and reasonably neutral. in order to reveal qualities that the site already possessed or that can be interpreted by an individual, such as the sound of one's steps descending the ramp beside the wall or the movement of the wind across the field." More than a work of architecture, this is a design sponsored by UNESCO and intended for reflection and thought. The memorial has eighty patrons in the intellectual sense of the term. One of these is Elie Wiesel, whose words are engraved on the wall: "Shield against the ugliness of hatred and the absurdity of war, memory alone gives men hope."

Completed in 1998

Client City of Val-de-Reuil

Associate architects Franck Vialet, Catherine Mosbach

Team ITEC

Photos : Nicolas Borel