National Memorial on Mount Herzl

National Memorial on Mount Herzl
 

Kimmel Eshkolot Architects (1992) Ltd.

The Mount Herzl Memorial Hall is a place of commemoration. It’s raison d’etre is to be a memorial for all the fallen soldiers of the country, and thus contains all their names. It is a project of hope for peaceful times. Set in a calm biblical scenery, but adjacent to the nowadays busy streets of Jerusalem, the space is isolated and quiet. It was excavated in the mountain to form an intimate space for both personal and collective experiences of commemoration. Above the hall, the mountain is reconstructed of curved topographies made of Jerusalem stone. An undulating funnel-shaped formation of bricks opens the excavated hall to the sky. Its irregular vortex shape floods the space with ever- changing natural light. At the upper end of the roof, spaced stone slabs are designed to allow air flow and natural ventilation through the roof. The names, engraved on stone bricks, form a long Wall of Names, which wraps around the funnel of light. Following a spiral ramp up the memorial, the wall is built of 23,000 stone bricks, each engraved with the name of a fallen soldier, his death date, and a light-candle to be lit every year on that date. The design development of the funnel was done in consultation with the research team R.O.B. at the ETH, Zurich. It is constructed of uniform extruded Aluminium bricks, each CNC’d and marked to get it’s specific joints’ locations, to allow for the assembly on site of the irregular, unique structure.