Tribute to Fallen Soldiers

I would like to share with you a project I recently designed; it is a memorial to the fallen soldiers of Iraq and Afghanistan. I submitted it as a competition entry for the Fallen Heroes Foundation, an organization planning to create the memorial near Fort Worth, Texas. I found out today that my design was not selected, so I am free to share it publicly.

Although I have strong political feelings about the war, it is important to remember that this is not a monument to war or a justification of war. Rather, it serves the families and friends of the lost; it is a place of memory and healing. What is left unsaid is as important as what is said.

My central concept for the memorial was to focus on the process of healing. I believe that loss can never be justified, the void left over can never be filled. Our wounds can only be healed with new growth, with new passions and love, which is to be found, above all, in each other.

 

"A memorial is a sacred place to come together to remember. In gathering we share our memories of the lost, and find strength in one another. Here each memorial has its own space of gathering; two courtyards carved within pyramidal earth mounds. To arrive in the center you encircle and descend into the center space, walking along the walls that reveal the faces of the fallen. The polished marble meets the sky on all sides."

The foundation wanted the memorial to display plaques of each soldier with photos; to avoid the cacophony of thousands of faces all at once, I designed the wall to be made of up turnable tiles, making the process of viewing the wall an interactive experience:

 

Memorial wall.

"Each plaque is a two-sided tile that can be turned in place. You turn over tiles as you walk along the wall. For a moment, through touch and sight, you absorb the unique individuality of a fallen hero. A trail of experience forms behind you. Each morning, the portraits of those who passed away on that day are revealed. On special days, all portraits are revealed."

 

View from inside memorial.

One of the difficult challenges of the project was to create two separate but connected memorials. My friend Jon DaVault, a veteran of Iraq, made the point that these are two different wars, taking place at the same time but with fundamentally different agendas. Yet, there ought to be a place where veterans of any war can feel they belong. This prompted a third element, the chapel:

 

View of approach to chapel.

"The two memorials are separate but connected. Uniting them at the center is an open-air chapel, animated by light and shadow. This centerpiece is a place of ceremonial gathering and quiet contemplation. Water gently trickles from a basin in the center. Figurative sculpture throughout the memorial will reflect on the journey of the soldier."

The chapel itself is a rotated square inscribed in an inverted pyramid made from marble blocks. The goal was to create something simple and powerful. I believe that monumentality comes from the clarity, weight, and honesty of a building's structure. Here, the roof is held up with two strong beams that sit on buttresses that penetrate the outer face of the wall. 

View of inside of chapel.

View toward chapel from inside of memorial.

You may be wondering what I meant about the "journey of the soldier." I did not elaborate on this concept in my design submission because I didn't want it to overwhelm the project. But in essence, it was the idea of using four figurative sculptures to represent stages of the emotional or psychological state of a solider.

It is my belief that war is an inhuman act, that we thrust soldiers into this environment and they do whatever they must to retain some element of their humanity. Their initial feelings of energy and the anticipation of action give way to the suffering of the war experience. This suffering gives them a strong need for convictions that allow them to justify their actions, convictions which they sometimes retain, and which they sometimes decide to doubt.

I think my goal was to create a beautiful and tranquil space in which people could come to terms with their own feelings and open themselves up to the horizon of new joy.

Thank you, soldiers, for your sacrifice. I pray that we find diplomatic alternatives to war.