Babyn Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, witnessed the killing of more than 33,000 Jewish men, women, and children, on September 29 and 30, 1941. The site of one of the largest single massacres perpetrated by occupying German troops against Jews during World War II, Babyn Yar became a symbol of the Holocaust by Bullets.
While the main tragic event took place in 1941, throughout the occupation, the site was used as a killing location by the German forces. In fact, it is reported that 70 to 100 000 people lost their lives in Babyn Yar. With no architecture to the tragedy and only a remaining “broken” landscape, people struggled with achieving memorialization and public recognition.
Erased many times, the site was completely terraformed over the years: When retreating, German soldiers burned the bodies, in hopes of leaving no physical traces behind. New constructions replaced historical structures, mudslides happened frequently in the filled ravine, and eventually, a 132 hectares public park ended up covering the entirety of the area. What was once at the outskirts of the city, became an integral part of Kyiv. Considered also an image of resistance against Soviet occupation, the first public acknowledgment of the tragic events of Bayn Yar, took place in September of 1991, 50 years after the calamity and 1 month after the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union. While the site held individual small-scale traditional memorials, it was nevertheless hard to memorialize the tragedy on its true scale, with the absence of architectural remnants.
Seeking to address the history of this area and fix the narrative of the Holocaust by Bullets, the Foundation of Babyn Yar was created in 2016 to support the BYHMC - the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. In 2019, the organization launched its first architectural competition, with a very rigid and detailed brief. Leading to a project whose conceptual ambitions were really constrained by the program, the contest then acknowledged that the end result cannot look like any typical project, located anywhere in the world. Bringing on board artistic director Ilya Khrzhanovsky, a Russian film director, the advisory committee collectively decided to change approaches, in order to recognize the potential of the site. Acting and thinking on the scale of Babyn Yar itself, a year or so later, Nick Axel, joined the team to guide the Architectural Advisory Board of the Holocaust Memorial Center and bring the most compelling people in the field to discuss and reflect on "how to create a memorial on this 132 hectares site".
With a new vision and new ambition, the project was looking to establish an engaging and personal experience, related to the movements of people around the site. Basically turning the natural space into a memorial, the first step was about imagining “a place people will want to return to”, with different architectural and artistic interventions. “There is not one story to Babyn Yar, there are arguably at least 100 000 stories to Bayn Yar. There is at least one story to every person that died there”, explains Nick Axel. Considering that it is crucial not to limit the narrative, the project could not be restricted to 1 single museum. Universally significant, Babyn Yar’s story recalls not only the violence that occurred on its territory but also all violence taking place around the world. A place of life, the public park, seeks to commemorate death while generating meaningful connections between the shared past and the shared future.
Hoping that Babyn Yar gets recognized as one of the main sites of the Holocaust, the Public-Private collaboration has built 4 main interventions so far: The Mirror Field Installation by Maksym Demidenko and Denis Shibanov, A Glimpse Into the Past Installation by Anna Kamyshan, the Babyn Yar Synagogue by Manuel Herz, and the Crystal Wall of Crying by Marina Abramovic. Creating new understandings and connections between the here and now, the location-based projects tackled metaphysical experiences, reflecting on limitations while bringing in new ways of engaging with history.
The Mirror Field Installation was the first intervention made by the foundation on the site. Designed and built in 6 weeks, it set the aesthetic standards and defined future expectations. Likely to be a temporary intervention, it is currently located on the site of one of the future main museums. Generating a sonic dimension, this installation draws people in, communicating a deeper level of the story to tell. In addition, the Babyn Yar Synagogue conceived by Manuel Herz was the first architectural element on the site. Recognizing the spiritual aspect, the raison d’etre behind the tragedy, the project, a building-size pop-up book built in 5 months, recreates connections, bringing back the practice to Babyn Yar.
Planning four museums (including the first contemporary Holocaust museum in Eastern Europe), six entrances, numerous memorials, artistic interventions, research centers, libraries, and archives, the BYHMC has currently two projects under development: the "Kurgan" or the Museum of the History of the Tragedy, designed by SUB and the Museum of History of Oblivion, by OFFPOLINN - Office for Political Innovation. Once completed, the under-construction "Kurgan'' will be the first museum on site. Reinterpreting the traditional form of a Kurgan, a prehistoric burial mound found in the region, the project is a structure that looked deep in the past, scheduled to open at the end of April of this year. On the other hand, the Museum of History of Oblivion, in the development phase, is a renovation project of the former office building of the Jewish cemetery. The radical and bold design proposes to remove the roof of the existing structure, in order to create a viewing platform that recognizes a new perspective.
While these additions are changing the perception of Babyn Yar, and the ambitions of BYHMC are growing bigger, the foundation recognized the need for an overall conceptual structure, to permit an overall engagement with the site. A new competition, open for everyone, seeks, in fact, to develop a plan that “brings the different projects of the Memorial Center into a holistic structure and grounds them in a pluralistic experience of the site”. A natural evolution to the discussion, the master plan will generate a guiding framework, on both physical and metaphysical levels. Understanding Babyn Yar as a whole, while keeping its heterogeneity, the scheme seeks to draft its own way of interacting with the site, bringing to the area and the city of Kyiv, a never-seen-before organism that inspires new ways of thinking.
The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC) seeks bold plans and daring visions to structure and guide the development of the 132-hectare site of Babyn Yar, Kyiv, the international symbol of the Holocaust by Bullets. The competition is open to students, young professionals, and established practices of architecture, art, choreography, philosophy, science, and more. To enter this open competition, register and submit your proposal by May 15, 2022.
This feature is part of an ArchDaily series titled AD narratives where we share the story behind a selected project, diving into its particularities. Every month, we explore new constructions from around the world, highlighting their story and how they came to be. We also talk to the architect, builders, and community seeking to underline their personal experience. As always, at ArchDaily, we highly appreciate the input of our readers. If you think we should feature a certain project, please submit your suggestions.
.jpg?1644783310 "Changing the Paradigms of Memorialization: the Ongoing Story Behind the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center")
