Nation's Memory Institute in Bratislava

/honourable mention in architecture competition/authors: Jakub Kopec, Matúš Bišťan, Jakub Števanka/art design of the tower facade: Anetta Mona Chişa & Lucia Tkáčová/cooperation: Pavol Mičáň, Adela Hornáčková, Klára Zahradníčková/2023

Cities as places of collective memory in Slovakia are manifested more by breaks than by continuity in time. These ruptures between and within different social and political systems simultaneously open up niches of freedom and are the breeding ground for a democratic urban space. In such space coexisting fragments from different eras often illustrate the paradoxical encounter between East and West, high and low culture, or city and countryside. We find a similarly diverse and disparate mixture in the area of interest, which is gradually transforming from an urban periphery into a central knot. The design of the new headquarters of the Nation's Memory Institute preserves the valuable buildings of the area and complements them with new ones, with the intention of activating the unused potential of local urban connections.