UIA

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

LATEST RESULTS
1997

DESIGN OF THE GORÉE MEMORIAL (Senegal)

The Government of Senegal decided to build a Memorial, museum complex and centre for documentation and research on the west corniche in Dakar, open to the ocean, facing the Madeleines Island, just a few kilometres from the island of Gorée. This initiative received the support of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

For the design of this highly symbolic cultural complex, dedicated to Africa and African communities, the Government of Senegal launched an international anonymous single stage project competition open to the architects of the world in November 1996. This competition, conform to the UNESCO/UIA Recommendation on International Competitions on Architecture and Town Planning, received the support of the International Union of Architects (UIA).

AIM AND COMPETITION PROGRAMME

A place of pilgrimage for over 150 million Africans, the complex had to be an expression of the conquest of liberty after a long and painful experience, and symbolise the constant will to construct civilisations in which freedom and tolerance reign. Its construction, on one of the extreme points of the African continent in the centre of Dakar, is very closely linked to the restoration of the island of Gorée - an emblematic place in the discovery of the New World and the Slave Trade that embodies a very strong sense of value for Africa and the black diaspora throughout the world.

Encompassing a surface of 12 000 m2, the design was for a Memorial, a museum dedicated to navigation; a centre for study and research equipped with highly advanced facilities and an administrative centre. The green spaces had to be given special treatment, particularly on the visitors circuit "The Procession of Civilisations", which is an integral part of the site.

THE JURY AND ITS DELIBERATIONS

An international jury met in Dakar from 10-14 September 1997. Presided by Harry G. Robinson III (USA), UNESCO representative, the jury was composed of the following architects: Tomaz Kancler (Slovenia), Reuben Mutiso (Kenya), Suk-Won Kang (Republic of Korea) and Salah Zaky Said (Egypt), UIA representative jury and general reporter of the jury, and the following personalities: Mrs Carolyn Armenta Davis (USA), architecture critic, Mbaye Bassine Dieng, Director of Heritage and ethnographer, Landing Sane, Director of Town Planning and Architecture of Senegal and Amadou Lamine Sall, Coordinator of the Gorée Memorial Project.

290 projects were submitted to the jury for examination after the Technical Commission had submitted its report. The jury proceeded to make selections and eliminations and after deliberation and voting, it awarded three prizes and five mentions. Anonymity was lifted at the end of this final procedure.

WINNERS

• 1st Prize:
  Ottavio di Blasi (Milan, Italie) in collaboration with:
  Paolo Simonetti, Stefano Grioni, Mauricio Cardenas, Marzia Roncoroni, architects; Gianni Perotti, Antoine Pin, journalists; Favero & Milan, Engineers.

• 2nd Prize:
  In-Bo Shim, Hideyuki Yamashita, Alan Burden (Seoul, Korea) in collaboration with: Shinya Satoh

• 3rd Prize:
  Brandi & Partners (Gottingen, Germany), Jochen Brandi, Hailo Ostmann, Herbert Krause, architects in collaboration with Sebastian Knorr and Matthias Heidtkamp.

Mentions:

• George Henry Chidiac and Fatina Nabil Saikali (Beirut, Lebanon)
• Véronique Jandelle, Pascaline Guillier, Alice Toulemonde (Paris, France)
• Philippe Harden, Charlotte Macaux, Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut, Guillaume Rolland (Paris, France)
• Torsen Brecht (Weimar, Germany), in collaboration with Gabi Hultsch, architect, Stephan Hahn sculptor, Peter Bringt, designer, Philipp Koch, sociologist.
• Olivier Souquet, François Defrain (Paris, France)

EXHIBITION

A public exhibition of the projects submitted to the jury will be presented at the Dakar International Exchange Centre from 1-15 October 1997.

Paris, 4 October 1997