Museums

Gorèe Memorial

PROJECT DETAILS

City

Dakar

Country

Senegal

Customer

State of Senegal - UNESCO

Architectural design

ODB Ottavio di Blasi & Partners

Period

2014

Amount of works

25.000.000 €

Services Provided

Structure design

Sector

Museums

Dimensions

height: 105 m

Lest we forget

The Slave Trade was an unprecedented story, a large-scale system of domination and human exploitation between the 16th and 19th centuries, in which Africa and its people paid a heavy price. The Gorée Memorial is a place of remembrance so that the values of human rights are not forgotten.

Lest we forget

The Gorée Memorial, a memorial building to the Slave Trade, overlooks the Dakar shoreline, in a position to continually look to the horizon and recall that inhumane route, which was traveled from the 16th to the 19th century.
In addition to housing the memorial, it houses a study center, a library specializing in the subject, a screening room, an exhibition space and a viewing terrace, located 75 m above ground.
The structure is a stainless steel shell formed by regular hexagons that support the terrace about 100 m above the ground.

Sunset view of the Gorèè Memorial from the beach in Dakar, Senegal

A modular shell

Compositionally, the building consists of two volumes in dialogue with each other: a low, full, convex dome that protects the memorial and other activities taking place within it, and a concave, hollow dome that points to the ocean.
Both canopies are a lattice of hexagonal modules, which form the supporting structure of the project. The hexagonal shape results from the assembly of stainless steel lattice beams, which are in turn supported by a main structure made of profiles, also made of stainless steel.