Notion of abscence

20 maart 2003, 15:18

In de zomer van 2002 schreef het Bundesland Niedersachsen (Duitsland) een prijsvraag in twee fases uit voor een totaal landschapsontwerp en een ontwerp voor een bezoekerscentrum op het terrein van het voormalige concentratiekamp Bergen Belsen.Van de 156 inzendingen, waaronder de inzending van de Nederlandse architecten Micha de Haas en Michael Walma van der Molen, werden 25 ontwerpen geselecteerd voor de 2e ronde.

Op 28 februari 2003 hebben de leden van de internationale jury, waaronder Professor Dr. Henry Friedländer, besloten een eervolle vermelding toe te kennen aan Walma van der Molen en De Haas toe te kennen. De officiële prijsuitreiking heeft dinsdag 11 maart 2003 plaats gevonden in Celle, Duitsland, door de minister van cultuur van de deelstaat Niedersachsen. De eerste prijs ging naar Sigel+Dubbers Architekten, Berlijn.

Nadere toelichting door Micha de Haas:

Voor mijn collega en neef Michael Walma van der Molen, en voor mijzelf, was het vanzelfsprekend dat wij aan deze prijsvraag zouden deelnemen. Onze beide moeders brachten als meisjes de laatste oorlogsjaren, samen met hun ouders, broertje en zusje, in Bergen Belsen door. Deze twee gezinnen overleefden het kamp, veel andere familieleden zijn nooit teruggekomen. Onze persoonlijke geschiedenis is daarom sterk met deze locatie verbonden. De kans om, met onze professionele inzichten en kennis, een dialoog aan te gaan met deze geschiedenis, moesten wij wel aangrijpen. Met veel inzet hebben wij gewerkt aan een ruimtelijk ontwerp dat de emotionele en historische betekenis van deze locatie op een toepasselijke wijze moet verbeelden.

Voor de bezoeker van Bergen Belsen is het contrast tussen de verschrikkelijke geschiedenis en het ontbreken aan ieder teken hiervan in het idyllische landschap van vandaag, het meest indrukwekkend Het was juist deze notie die wij op een pregnante wijze wilden laten uitkomen – met name door de grens van het voormalige kamp duidelijk te markeren – de grens tussen het schuldige en het onschuldige landschap.

From the memoirs of my grandmother:
“The summer of 1944 was warm… After finishing our labour we would often go to the small field behind the Appelplatz, the small child in a pulling cart on top of which we would put our bread and a diaper that would serve as a tablecloth. It was close to the fence and the watchtower but over the barbed wire we could see the beautiful forests of the Lünenbergerheide, and that so reminded us of the good, normal life. If ever during the day I came close to that green, I always allowed myself a few minutes, sat down and said to myself: now comes the Violin concert of Mendelsohn or the Symphony with drumbeat of Haydn, and then I hummed to myself as much as I remembered. This way you could remain, even if just a little, a “normal” human being. The first years after the liberation, when going to a concert, the forest of Bergen- Belsen would always appear in my minds eye, large and tall, and projected in such a way that I had to rub my eyes before I noticed that I wasn’t there at all…”

The site
Today, visitors come to Bergen-Belsen with so many different memories, stories and emotions. It is not possible to unite all these into one uniform experience. The place should be universal and provide a space for everybody’s private thoughts. The site itself is the memorial in this case.

There is no need for symbolism: this is where what is to be remembered actually happened.
This is the earth beneath which history and suffering are buried, never to be touched again and always to remain camp Bergen-Belsen.

The most striking experience on the grounds of Bergen-Belsen is one of absence. There are hardly any physical remains left in the idyllic surroundings that can help us to visualize and comprehend its horrifying past. A past that is in fact incomprehensible and unimaginable. Yet - as we have knowledge of this past - it is this very notion of absence that is so powerfully confronting.
It is our belief that this notion of absence should be emphasized in the design of the site. The visitors gain knowledge at the exhibition, and then enter the camp, to be left with this beautiful and at the same time disturbing landscape.

Although the past is hardly discernable in today’s landscape, the forest around the site is still the same forest. Gradually, through planting and natural growth the trees are filling the void in the landscape within the perimeter of the former camp. This is part of a positive process of healing (1). It is however of essential importance to mark – on the site – the border of the former camp. In order to do so we projected a 3 meter high rampart along the exact contour of the former perimeter fence, separating the two forests. It rises steeply from the surroundings (with access stairs at a number of locations) and has a gentle slope towards the camp terrain. This way, approaching the site, one meets a physical barrier that has to be crossed, indicating the clear transition of what was camp and what was not, and hiding it from view as an enigma. In contrast, the gentle slope inside the camp is by no means a form of physical enclosure. It creates a horizon that frames the sky as a visual border and temporarily eliminates the exterior surroundings. On top of this rampart one is confronted with the sight of the camp. Here a path leads around the entire site (about an hours walk), enabling the visitor to physically experience the size and presence of the terrain, encircle it, almost as a ritual. Along this path the names of those who died in the camp (who entered the camp but never again crossed this line) are engraved on a continuous steel plint that forms a ring around the camp. Rather than a collective wall of names, this Path of Names
gives an individual place to each name – known or unknown - a place to put flowers or a candle for those who wish to remember. In order to fit the names of the approximately 70,000 victims along the 3.6 km long path around the site, only 5 centimeters per name are available. This striking fact underlines the physical size of what occurred here and the smallness of a human individual in the face of annihilation.

Along the paths throughout the camp, steel ‘frames’ capture views of the contemporary landscape and show a historical photograph(2) of that exact same view, taken during one of the camp periods. The discrepancy between the historical and contemporary views enhanced, on a personal scale, the notion of absence.

Inside the camp the only historical elements that are treated (besides the existing monuments and graves) are the former main camp road and the Appellplatz, both because of their historical importance in the daily life of the camp. The main camp road was a road of no return for many after the march from the trains. A corridor is cleared through the forest from the rampe, 4 kilometer away, through the former main entrance and along the main camp road, ending at the opposite side of the camp. The slate pavement is not on the road itself but on both sides of it. The width of the former road is planted with heather. One can walk along the former road but not on it. The Appellplatz, with the mass grave on it, is treated in a similar manner: it is a clearing between the trees, open to the sky and marked by a paved path at its edges.

We made a deliberated choice to refrain from references to the different sections and the different barracks within the camp territory. Doing it will, in our opinion, suggest a distinction between one suffering and another: an impossible and incomprehensible distinction. Even the quarters of the camp guards is not excluded, as we know that prisoners has been put there to labor as well. The historical knowledge about the different sections and periods of the camp is gained at the exhibition. Within the boundaries, on the grounds of the former camp, it is all BERGEN BELSEN.

The buildings
Because of the significance of the former camp border for the design, the main building has been situated at the rampart (3). The compound next to the parking area offers space to education, information and other facilities. The former exhibition building keeps its function and serves as a space for temporary exhibitions. The two other existing buildings are redesigned to accommodate office facilities. The new extension of the compound is built partly on the site of the former temporary extension. It accommodates the educational facilities, the cafeteria, bookshop and information desk. It is an architecturally restrained and transparent building that channels the visitors towards the forest path.

Walking from the entrance complex through the forest (4) one comes to a clearing, paved with dark slate stone. It slopes upward to the path on top of the rampart and meets the horizon at the edge of the camp. This inclined plateau builds the dramaturgy of the approach to the camp. It is proposed as an austere and monumental space and its architecture is, like the rampart, an intervention in the landscape. It is the main exhibition building as well as the actual entrance to the site. It is also a platform for official memorial ceremonies. Within this volume the permanent exhibition spaces, archives and storage, are carved out as a labyrinth from the earth.

The building is entered from an open courtyard below ground level. Here groups can gather before they enter the exhibition space. A low entrance provides access to the building. Once inside, the ceiling rises as one advances through the exhibition spaces. Openings in the tilted roof enable light to enter these spaces, framing the sky as their only view. Between the larger exhibition spaces, the mass of the earth has been left over. From these masses smaller, intimate rooms and passages have been carved to accommodate personal histories of prisoners of the camp.

The archives are situated one level below the exhibition space and are accessible through the service entrance on the western corner of the building . The archives are adjoining an inaccessible court that has been cut out from the floor of the exhibition space. Through a transparent wall of this court, the archives are partially visible – from a distance – emphasizing the presence, and the value of the storage of historical material in this building.

A single monolithic tower protrudes from the plateau. The routing in the building leads up through this tower to the Path of Names, the library spaces and an eventually the observation space. Here, above the treetops, the topographical history of the camp is exhibited and the (absent) former camp structures can be referenced directly to the view of the present site. Light filters through a translucent glass shaft at the center of the tower and washes the exhibition space below. This light concludes the route through the exhibition, gives the building its physical and emotional orientation and marks the exit from the building and the entrance to the camp area.

1. The original Hübotter landscape design had actually, though being rather ethically controversial, contributed to this process. 2. Printed on a weatherproof ceramic plate. 3. In case op a phased realization of the design, only part of the rampart will be initially built. 4. The ‘cemetary wall’ will be demolished almost completely, as it suggests the existence of an unexisting borderline.

Architectenbureau Micha de Haas: 020 4275390
Micha de Haas op 06 28345229
info@michadehaas.nl Zie ook www.michadehaas.nl, waar ook het ontwerp voor Bergen Belsen wordt getoond.

Trefwoorden

prijsvraag

1	Wie betaalt de klimaattransitie? donderdag, 28 mei
2	Masterplan voor verdichting rond station Haarlem Spaarnwoude vastgesteld donderdag, 28 mei
3	Kronospan heeft een designcentrum in Milaan donderdag, 28 mei
4	Woningcorporaties moeten niet zelf willen bouwen dinsdag, 26 mei
5	Wasl Tower van UNS pronkt met hoge keramische gevel donderdag, 28 mei

Andere nieuwsberichten

Serge Schoemaker creëert loftwoning in Amsterdams grachtenpand

Vandaag, 15:44

Op de eerste verdieping van rijksmonumentaal grachtenhuis aan de Lauriergracht in Amsterdam heeft Serge Schoemaker Architects een appartement verbouwd.

Oud-Zaans koopmanshuis met zeldzame behangsels krijgt nieuwe bestemming

Vandaag, 14:29

Hendrick de Keyser Monumenten is sinds 26 mei eigenaar van het voormalige raadhuis en koopmanshuis aan de Lagedijk in Zaandijk. Het pand geeft een zeldzaam compleet beeld hoe Zaanse kooplieden woonden in de 18e en vroege 19e eeuw.

Julia Vytopil wordt nieuwe directeur Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie

Vandaag, 11:22

Zij volgt per 1 september Syb Groeneveld op, wiens tweede en laatste termijn dan afloopt.

Tien ontwerpteams geselecteerd voor volgende fase Nationaal Slavernijmuseum

Vandaag, 10:14

De teams zijn gekozen uit een groot aantal nationale en internationale inzendingen, meldt de gemeente Amsterdam.

Kabinet werkt aan komst landelijke grondbank

Vandaag, 13:47

Zo'n organisatie zou grond opkopen om achter de hand te houden voor publieke plannen.

Kabinet voelt zich ondersteund door klimaatadviezen burgerberaad

Vandaag, 12:17

“De samenleving en het kabinet werken in dezelfde richting”, concludeert klimaatminister Stientje van Veldhoven

Minder nieuwbouwwoningen in eerste kwartaal dan 2025

29 mei, 11:06

Er zijn ruim 13.700 nieuwbouwwoningen opgeleverd in het eerste kwartaal van het jaar, meldt het CBS

D66 begint in debat over 'IJstad' in Markermeer, anderen kritisch

29 mei, 9:10

Een nieuwe drijvende stad genaamd 'IJstad' in het Markermeer, daarvoor vroeg D66-Kamerlid Robert van Asten donderdag aandacht in een debat over woningbouw. "De techniek ligt er, het wachten is op de politiek."