A REMEMBRANCE SITE
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Address: Parc de Glacis, Besançon, France Landscape design: Ateliers 2/3/4/ Completion: 2013. Size: 2,500 m2 Client: Besançon City
Memorial sites and monuments are often created to honor the deceased and remember their actions. In the city of Besançon, Ateliers 2/3/4/ was commissioned to create a site in remembrance of soldiers killed in World War I. The corten steel walls, which display epitaphs forming the bodies of soldiers, as well as the conspicuous sculpture embodying the hope for the future, attract attention and turn the site into a cohesive unit.
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Reorganization of Besançon’s main station involved the demolition of the existing memorial. In its place, the city wanted to create a place of remembrance that incorporates elements of the ancient monument and welcomes all other commemorations of remembrance. The chosen location in front of the train station is located at the heart of Glacis Park, within a fortification of Vauban. As a clearing set up in the middle of the park, the esplanade notches the topography with the clean-cut rappeling trenches of World War I but also the ramparts of Vauban. The design of corten steel walls, which enclose the esplanade and recall the military geometries, is also part of the continuous angular design of the fortifications. Epitaphs, whose lettering is cut into the corten plate, form silhouettes of life-sized soldiers. The layout of the place consists of a large rectangle with corners and straight sections creating a complex geometry. After the move, some pieces of the original monument were retained. They are now positioned in the new setting on low-rise pedestals, thus initiating another look close at these sculptures. Ousmane Sow’s strong sculpture “Man and Child” complements the existing monument, highlighting the link between the tribute to the missing people and the hope which we must pin on the future. Crossed by a highly frequented footpath between the central train station of Besançon and the city center, this evocative square preserves the history of all erosions and time like a collective memory.
Epitaphs on corten steel walls. Esplanade with monument. Esplanade and view to city center. Walls from close-up. Corten steel walls. Back of square. Entrance. Site plan. Credits: Nicolas Waltefaugle