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Chinese practice Jiakun Architects have designed the Hu Huishan Memorial. Located in Anren Town, Sichuan Province, China, the memorial is dedicated to Hu Huishan, a 15 years old girl who was buried in the earthquake happened on May 12th, 2008.
Here is a description from the architects, “The memorial takes its prototype of make-shift tents which are seen frequently in disaster zone, its area of footprint, volume and form are all similar to the tent. The floor in the exterior is paved with red bricks, and surfaces on the exterior wall are plastered in a way that is quite often used in the local countryside houses.
The interior wall is painted into pink color which was the girl’s favorite color During her lifetime and covered by such remaining items left from her as photographs,school-bag,notebooks,deciduous teeth,umbilical cord, etc. Her life was too short to leave any trace for the society, she is not a famous person, only an ordinary girl, she is a jewel for her parents. The contents within the Memorial which pays remembrance for her is not intensely sorrowful nor noisy in large scale, it only simply traces back those memories for the blossoming girl.
A ray of light from a round-shaped skylight makes this small space pure and charming , just as what Liu Jiakun, the architect who design this Memorial,said, “this memorial is built for a normal girl, and is also built for all the ordinary lives – and treasuring ordinary lives is a foundation for reviving the nation.”
Photography: Iwan Baan
