Post traumatic architecture Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Post traumatic architecture - Dissertation Example The end of the whole process is going to be quite tempting to discover if the purpose of healing was achieved or not. Main dissertation body National September 11 Memorial & Museum A World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was setup in order to welcome designs on how the World Trade Center site could be reconstructed as a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. This competition was won by Michael Arad, an Israeli-American architect of Handel Architects. His design was called â€Å"Reflecting Absence† and its main feature included a reflecting pool and a tree-filled plaza which was blended into the city’s landscape (Meehan, 2011). With the collaboration of other architects, including landscape architects, the design was perfected. Families of the victims were also consulted in relation to the placement of the names of about 3000 victims killed that day (Dunlap, 2011). Landscape architects also helped to tweak the design especially in term s of the forest of trees which would surround the reflecting pools. Ten years following the disaster, on September 11, 2011, a dedication ceremony was held at the memorial and following the ceremony, the plaza was opened to the public. The design included two pools with manmade waterfalls cascading over the sides; the pools were placed at the sites where the Twin Towers used to stand. Each pool measures about an acre. Both pools were meant to symbolize the loss of life and the emptiness caused by the terrorist attacks on September 11. The sound of the water falls were also meant to reduce the sound of the city, creating a place which was to be a source of comfort and sanctuary to the visitors. Close to 400 sweet gum and swamp white oak trees took up the other 6 acres left of the memorial plaza. This further gave the area a sense of isolation from the city bustle. The names of the victims were then written into 76 bronze plates and attached to the walls at the edges of the pools (Bla is, 2011). The names included the victims of the September 11 attacks from the Twin Towers, as well as the victims from Arlington Virginia, and those from Pennsylvania. The names of the rescuers were also included in the bronze plates along with the six victims from the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The arrangement of the names was also very much important to the design as the groupings and adjacencies were based on family relations as well as company or organization affiliations. In effect, the names of families were set alongside each other; the names of first responders were grouped alongside the names of their units; and the names of co-workers were also written alongside each other. The design for the memorial site also included a Survivor Tree. The tree is a callery pear tree which was previously recovered from the rubbles of ground zero World Trade Center site in October of 2001 while retrieval workers were trying to look for survivors. The tree was about 8 feet t all and severely burned, but it had one living branch (Sudol, 2011). It was a tree which has long been at the site for decades before the attack, planted originally in the 1970s. It was later cared for by Arthur Ross from the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The tree was not expected to