波兰军队士兵公墓丨ngo+pasierbinski

Firm： ngo + pasierbinski

Type： Landscape + Planning › Cemetery

STATUS： Concept

SIZE： 25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

BUDGET： $1M - 5M

The main idea of the cemetery is hortus conclusus (Latin: "enclosed garden") - contemplative room, garden in the garden, forest in the forest. A place disconnected from the world of noise, pedestrian traffic, and the smells of the port. An internal space where you can sit, walk, immerse yourself in your own thoughts, reach out back in time, watching flowers and trees. Hortus conclusus is closed all around and open to the sky and trees.

Garden cemetery. Simple and austere, with earth graves with a brick cellar, similar to those built by friends of the fallen in 1939. It is dedicated to the memory of both fallen soldiers of the Polish Army and the entire unit taking part in the heroic defense of Westerplatte.

The interior of the garden - Sacrum, the exterior - Profanum. Two spaces separated from each other by a wall, high enough to keep the interior hidden from the eyes of passers-by, but detached from the ground to reveal the secret to the curious. The elevation is an expression of respect for the topography of the historic battlefield, unchanged since 1939.

The only mute witnesses to the history of heroic defense and the death of soldiers are the few trees that survived the artillery shelling, and during the battle provided cover and shelter for the fighting. The cemetery wall is a screen on which their shadows fall, emphasizing and exposing the presence of these silent guardians of history.

The center of the composition is the cross of Captain Dąbrowski, symbolizing his own history of both defenses against the German aggressor and the communist invader. The main axis points towards sunrise on September 1, commemorating the place and time of the outbreak of World War II.