Shoá Monument

Design & Development of a productive process for the transfer of objects to concrete. Project by architects Gustavo Nielsen and Sebastián Marsiglia in commemoration of the victims of the Jewish Holocaust located at the intersection of Av. del Libertador and Av. Bullrich. In 2009, an international competition was held, promoted by the embassies of Israel and Germany, the Shoá Museum, the National Government, and the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, resulting in Nielsen and Marsiglia's project being the winner among 70 projects. In 2014, the construction of the monument began, and a work team was formed consisting of architects and industrial designers. The monument consists of a wall 40 meters long and 4 meters high made up of 114 concrete blocks. Each block has an object from everyday life imprinted in bas-relief; these low reliefs represent the absence of the human being as urban fossils. The challenge was to capture the architects' initial idea in a way that had the desired sensitivity but could also be made in concrete to endure over time. The process was designed to collect all the objects donated by people, which were then refined so that a mold could be made from plaster or alginate. From these molds, silicone copies were made, which were used as the base of the formwork for the precast concrete. As a result of the process, a perfect copy in bas-relief was obtained, allowing all the details and textures of the object to be replicated. Each precast had one or more objects depending on size, and each block had to be different from the others. Once all the blocks were produced in the factory, they were transported to the installation site and arranged in a specific order. Creators: Architect Gustavo Nielsen - Architect Sebastián Marsiglia Design Team: Diego González King - Valentín Cristiani - Bárbara Kaplan - Gustavo Marinic - Lorena Ihan - I-Hsiu Chen.