Sleuk Rith Institute
Phon Penh
Architect Photographer
Renders by Zaha Hadid ©
CompletedFuture Project
Project Information
The Sleuk Rith Institute – a new institution and genocide memorial in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh - brings together a museum, research centre, graduate school, document archives and research li...
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Project Information
The Sleuk Rith Institute – a new institution and genocide memorial in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh - brings together a museum, research centre, graduate school, document archives and research library.
The institute will house the Documentation Centre of Cambodia’s one million documents in its archives and, as the largest collection of genocide related material in Southeast Asia, will become a global centre for education and research into the documentation, causes and prevention of genocide.
This brief required a direction that breaks from some of the stereotypes associated with genocide memorial architecture. “In the context of genocide and mass atrocity, memorial architecture has tended to reflect the evil and misfortune of the historical period it represents,” he says. “In this sense, the architecture’s legacy is dark, sombre, and firmly oriented to the past.”
The institute’s design is organized as five wooden structures that are separate volumes at ground level, but interweave and link together as they rise upwards; connecting the different departments, visitors, students and staff within a singular whole. With an overall footprint of 80m x 30m at the base and 88m x 38m at roof level, the structures range between three to eight storeys.
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