Korean War Memorial and Visitor Center

Location 
Lüleburgaz, TR

Client
Luleburgaz Municipality 

Year
2019

Size
1.670 m²

Team Members
Bilge Altuğ, Mehmet Metin Polat 

Awards
Honorable Mention

For soldiers fighting thousands of kilometers away from their homes in Korea, their country had become an ideal rather than land. Soldiers were martyred in this war for an abstract idea of ​​belonging, not seen with their eyes or held with their hands. For them, during this war, homeland had become a phenomenon that was out of context and out of place.
The design scenario envisions the visitors empathizing with the experience of the soldiers in this war. Within this context, the project mainly revolves around the feeling of "being trapped.” To achieve that, all areas for the visitors are placed below ground, breaking off with the military and the rural regions. Preserving the dense vegetation surrounding the plot also isolates the building from the environment.
The tower, the only visible structure on the plot, also serves as a monumental gateway for the building. 

As a passage, it separates the inner world from the outer world. As the tower is connected to the external world by only an image of the sky, it is the part that offers the visitors the most intense feeling of being trapped. As the visitors pass through it, they come across the names of all souls lost at war. When the visitors finally cross the passage to reach the inner world, they encounter a representation of the sentiments at war.

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