416 Memorial Park | Ansan - South Korea | 2021

Architects: UNITEDLAB Associates and Vtrilloarquitectos
Client: City of Ansan
Photographers: 3D Rendering: treceuve
All Drawings: UNITEDLAB Associates, Vtrilloarquitectos

The purpose of the project is to design an optimal plan to create a cultural park consisting of a complex of exhibition and educational facilities and a columbarium to commemorate and share the pain of the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster. When the passenger ferry MV Sewol sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities. The scene of the Sewol ferry sinking will never be forgotten.

Nothing can replace this scene, so all the architects have to do is translate time into space. For those who lost their loved ones, those who died without reason, and the people who watched it, the 416 Memorial is to be built as a place of sublimation rather than a simple memorial space. Sorrow does not end with itself, so the architects try to write a poem to sublimate resistance, anger, and sadness toward society into the communication of the times. The roof garden above metaphors the conception of a new life. Designed with sustainability, 250 birch trees are planted to commemorate the victims. 416 memorial maximizes the experience according to the sequence of movement.

The architectural building gradually deepens from the entrance to the memorial space below. The ramp leading down is deliberately inclined, a metaphor for a gradual sequence and an inclined ship. The pop-up event space in the middle of the lamp is a public space that connects public programs around it. It connects to educational facilities and event facilities, and below it is connected to the exhibition space, and the office space is located at the end of the public domain. After going down the corridor that is transformed into a private zone, it enters the space of social memories, and finally reaches the Commemoration as well as Enshrinement Space. This space is an outdoor space in which the upper part of the pyramid is open to the outside, and phenomenalize the season and time.

The 250 birch trees commemorate the victims and are metaphors for eternity. Over time, the tree grows more and more, depicting the meaning of death leading to new life. In addition to the indoor memorial space, a memorial event can be held in the garden outdoors and each tree provides an individual memorial space around. The walkway in the garden can be closed depending on the event and is used as a performance space and amphitheater. The interface along the walkway is the connection between the space and the architecture, receiving natural light, meaning that architecture and landscape are united.