Interpretation Center

Project idea

Fragments of Memory explores how traumatic history survives through scattered stories and broken narratives. The interpretation centre is composed of fragmented architectural volumes representing disrupted lives and lost communities.

Project description

The project is located at the former Miguel de Azcuénaga Arsenal in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, previously used as a military arsenal and clandestine detention center during the military dictatorship (1976-1978). Through movement between fragments—spaces of loss, testimony, reflection, and hope—visitors reconstruct collective memory and transform remembrance into an active process of awareness and dialogue. The concept employs fragmented building forms with broken or split volumes, angular geometries, irregular blocks, and offset walls symbolizing fractured memory. The design features a memory corridor as a central axis connecting main spaces through galleries, creating a processional pathway and sequential spatial experience guiding an emotional journey terminating at a memorial plaza.

Technical information

The design incorporates symbolic voids including vertical void spaces through the building, empty chambers representing loss, and open courtyards inside gallery blocks with framed views to sky. Pavilion structures are handcuff-inspired because prisoners were kept permanently hooded and handcuffed. The site features subtropical humid climate with hot summers (30-40°C) and mild winters (10-20°C). The existing historic structure Galpón 9, used as a detention and torture facility, is preserved. The site contains preserved military buildings such as barracks, administration blocks, warehouses, workshops, guard posts, and a water tower. Key programmatic elements include an amphitheater, memory towers, walls of names, memory corridors, and fragmented walls.

Documentation

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