Foreword

In 2017, on the 75th anniversary of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima that killed upwards of 100,000 people, the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted. In support of this call for a ban on nuclear weapons, Bee Breeders sought out designs for "The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial", a conceptual project to be located in any known decommissioned nuclear weapon testing site. This competition was unique in that submissions were not permitted to include text, titles, or annotation of any kind. All ideas were required to be communicated visually.

The competition called for projects that established a clear concept. Given the nature of this competition, the received submissions comprised an immense library of experiential designs. Many focused on light and darkness. Others focused on scale – either by designing directly within the vast craters that remain as evidence of nuclear tests, or by overlaying the space encapsulated by nuclear explosions on dense cities, empty fields, or bodies of water. The designs attempted to memorialize those killed and impacted by the violence of nuclear activity, as well as highlight mankind’s cosmic capacity for destruction on Earth.

Bee Breeders teamed up with a fantastic jury panel with a range of experiences in memorial design. We thank this group for its time and thoughtful analysis of submissions. The full jury included: Jonas Dahlberg, an artist based in Stockholm, Sweden, founding director of the studio and research lab OF PUBLIC INTEREST (OPI) and known for his winning proposal of the memorials for the victims of the terrorist attacks in Oslo and Utøya in 2011; Sebastian Letz, a Partner and creative director at Milla & Partner, Germany, leading the design of Germany's national monument to freedom and unity; Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann, co-founders of US-based After Architecture with a portfolio that includes the Camp Barker Civil War memorial; Amsterdam-based architect Angelo Renna; Michel Rojkind, founder of Mexico City-based Rojkind Arquitectos, which recently proposed a memorial to coronavirus victims; and Fernando Romero, Founding Principal of Fernando Romero Enterprise FR-EE, which has worked on projects such as a proposal for an atomic energy pavilion in Russia.

Bee Breeders and its jury panel would like to thank all participants for their submissions!

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
The Last 
Nuclear Bomb Memorial
Enter the next competition edition
The Last 
Nuclear Bomb Memorial

Design a memorial that speaks to the cause of ending all nuclear weapons programs

Edition #4 ideas COMPETITION

1st Prize Winner +
BB STUDENT AWARD

Project name

The Garden

Authors Roberto Gonzalez, Eduardo Padilla
Country Mexico
+172 points Buildner University Rankings

2nd Prize Winner +
BB GREEN AWARD

Project name

Measure the horizon from where you stand. Let us know its length and why.

As recently graduated architects, participating in architecture competitions is important because it allows us to keep imagining possibilities and stretching the limits of architecture, without barriers and restrictions; something that can be limited in the professional field once there are budgets and clients involved. We believe it is important for our creative development to continue exploring ideas that challenge us and promote a strong dialogue.

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Authors Patxi Jauregui, Ana Elizalde, Mónica Muñoz, Yael González
Country Mexico

3rd Prize Winner

Project name

Procession

Competitions fine-tune your design skills and help constantly question current interests. Also, they challenge you to solve problems that on any other occasion would be difficult to solve.

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Author Steven Rubio
Country Colombia

Honorable Mentions

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Project name

The Silence of All Mankind

Country United States
Project name

Paper Vigilance

Author Julian Besems
Country United Kingdom
Project name

Because it concerns us all.

Authors Bernadette Nübling, Stella Funk
Country Germany
+72 points Buildner University Rankings
Project name

Irreversible

Authors Jessica Martins, Catarina Pereira, Inês Lopes
Country Portugal
Project name

The Aftermath

Project name

Dot

Company 3dsense
Author Josef Lepša
Country Czech Republic

Shortlisted projects

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DESOLATE

Justin Lieberman

Manuel Santos

Canada

zero point

Michelle Jean de castro

Brazil

The Crypt

Yifan Shen

Fei Xiong

China

Towards underwater regeneration

Raphael Heaton catelin

Cyril Domelier

France

Void

Martin Kloeckner

United States

Anthropogenic Fallout: Successional Operations of Land Use Memory for Progressive Regression

Andrew Madl

United States

Life and death of the last nuclear bomb

Vladyslav Koliesnik

Kharkiv National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture (KNUCEA)

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Ukraine

Dot

Josef Lepša

3dsense

Czech Republic

Measure the horizon from where you stand. Let us know its length and why.

Patxi Jauregui

Ana Elizalde

Mónica Muñoz

Yael González

Mexico

Submergence

Vasileios Sempsis

Fotis Sagonas

Greece

The Aftermath

Lauren Lam

United States

True-False about Nuclear Bomb

Wenbo Zhang

Bo Liu

China

The Monument Is Alive

Bartłomiej Woźniak

Apolonia Browarska

Politechnika Wrocławska

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Poland

DISTANCE

Uuganbayar Batkhuyag

Minkyu Kong

Heewoong Kim

South Korea

Because it concerns us all.

Bernadette Nübling

Stella Funk

University of Applied Sciences Mainz

+72 points Buildner University Rankings!
Germany

The Depth

Hyun soo Hwang

South Korea

Procession

Steven Rubio

Colombia

наблюдать

Taylor Kim

Alex Han

New Zealand

The Garden

Roberto Gonzalez

Eduardo Padilla

UNAM Facultad de Arquitectura

+172 points Buildner University Rankings!
Mexico

Obscura

Kiryun Song

Kyungyeol Kim

Winny hyungjin Cho

Hyunwon Choi

South Korea

The Forgotten

Benedikt Zeller

Germany

The means devours the end

Tom Macht

Germany

Katharsis

Gabriele Licciardi

Lorenzo Longo

Francesco Giacchino

Italy

Memorial 1

Andrew Brookes

United States

BETWEEN DARKNESS AND LIGHT

Christopher Mellin

Rafael Pelka

Austria

The Silence of All Mankind

Chang Yuan Max Hsu

United States

Irreversible

Jessica Martins

Catarina Pereira

Inês Lopes

Portugal

Impact Point

Ethan Mattocks

United Kingdom

The burden of time

Sinja Tekavec

Ana Špes

Univerity of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Slovenia

Heritage

Maxime Gaillard

Bruno Palak

Switzerland

Everything goes back to the beginning

Parisa Davoudi

Ali Habibianfar

Pirooz Shadanpour

United Kingdom

Altered Scape

Hubert Charlaix

Mathieu Nouhen

France

BEFORE AFTER - AFTER BEFORE NUCLEAR MEMORIAL

Wong Lapzhen

Malaysia

Peace Garden

Vikas Lokhande

India

715124/3154519

Davíð snær Sveinsson

Ísak Toma

Iceland

Paper Vigilance

Julian Besems

United Kingdom

NuclearReef

Johannes Beier

Konrad Beier

Moritz Penning

Germany

humility in silence

Lukas Hudak

Czech Republic

For the 24 000 forgotten

Baptiste Roche

Bastien Viguier

France

Nevada Echo

Stuart Beattie

Jake Choi

United Kingdom