• project: memorial park
• location: Ilok
• authors: Mihaela Goluža Besjedica, mag.ing.arch., Ana Krivošija, mag.ing.arch.
• project phase: conceptual design, competition
• project year: 2021.

A memorial park design will in a modern way mark the memory of the victims, through decent symbolism and contemporary materials and alsol emphasize the spatial possibilities of creating experiences important in memorial architecture. The planned memorial park is functionally divided into three parts: a memorial road, a memorial monument and a memorial plateau. The concept is based on the idea of opposition. Memorial architecture is a typology that is contemplated through conceptual dualities, and these dualities can be contextualized by spatial dualities. In this area we should remember the suffering, which brings unrest to the visitors, but on the other hand provide comfort and peace. This is achieved in architecture by broad/narrow dualities, light/dark, horizontality/verticality, extroversion/introversion. The memorial path starts from the central part of the park, this path gradually burrows into the terrain, breaks and gradually narrows, thus creating a feeling of confinement. It is a path by which we slowly move away from reality and prepare spiritually. At the end of this journey, we enter the memorial. Inside the monument we are in darkness, and light passes through a narrow rift in the wall in the shape of a cross. Inside the monument, we are reminded of man’s transience before going out on the memorial plateau. The Memorial Plateau is a space for prayer, gathering and staying of people. Open space after pronounced claustrophobicity on the memorial road and in the monument. A memorial plaque with the names of the victims, a bench, a fountain, a pedestal and a space for laying flowers are planned on the memorial plateau. The monument with a notch in the shape of a cross is the most emphasized element of the plateau next to the memorial plaque.