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On the 20th of January people gathered in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to protest the brutal and aggressive Soviet Union regime and to demand independence. This event was the deciding factor in forming the Azerbaijani national identity and marked a turning point in restoring national independence.
People’s presence is the essence of any protest. Accordingly, the design includes raised platforms as an abstraction of the rebels' presence with a column at the center of the platform having a directional light source at the top of it. Just as the people were there with a common central goal in mind, positioning of the platforms takes the form of a radial organization around a central focal point.
The eternal independence monument at the focal point is a landmark of the ultimate goal of the protest. Multiple columns of the same size as those designed for the platforms are distributed in a square grid filling a larger platform similar to the presence platforms. The columns are extruded in both directions, up and down as well, representing rising and sacrificing.
Interactivity
The design aims to reinforce the collective memory by considering 2 operating states:
“Passive State” in which the memorial site acts as a non-interactive embodiment of independence. This is the default state of the memorial site for the majority of the time.
“Active State” in which the site is interactive provides the public an opportunity to perform an abstract reminiscent salute, drawing their attention to the events that took place on the protest day.
The interactivity of the Active State can only be experienced on a memorial day, each platform will direct light toward the independence monument if more than 15 people stand on it, with people standing on all of the platforms the monument will reflect these lights toward the sky and the ground making it visible from all around the city during the memorial day.
Consisting of 10 platforms each representing 15 people, the memorial site thus requires 150 people for the light to be activated, matching the number of martyrs who died on the protest day.
Materials
The chosen concrete material enforces the monument’s visual impact and shows it to be representative of an unshakable will. A light reflection system is placed at the extrusion plane to reflect light coming from each platform in both directions to the sky as a representation of rising and to the ground as a representation of sacrificing.
The reflection system is covered by a glass of the same material as the platform’s light sources, representing the aggregation of the people’s will around the central goal of independence. The light is reflected off of the monument by the reflection system and will be visible from around the city on a memorial day.
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