DEVIN TABOR 

Project Submission for Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial Competition by Bee Breeders in collaboration with Nate Cole.

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This project details a memorial dedicated the roughly 1.3 million people, affected by the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons testing in current Kazakhstan, who reside in areas around the Lake Chagan/Balpan nuclear testing site. The memorial orients the occupant inward towards a water reservoir created by an underground nuclear test, the effects of which are still apparent today among the surrounding villages and cities. The program cascades down the inner edge of the crater and leads the occupants through corridors and galleries that frame glimpse towards the lake and culminates at an uninterrupted memorial space for contemplation and reflection. 

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The structural proposal is comprised of a structural steel system, infilled with brick, as well as thin steel plates protruding from the landscape. These steel plates divide the sloping, inner rim of the crater into occupiable spaces atop the roof structure, acting as handrails, retaining walls and guiding features along circulation paths to further accentuate entrances. The concept of these walls extending into the underground structure is revealed in the project’s final space - the memorial space. A steel plate is mounted against the final brick infill, steel structure wall exaggerates this continuation into the earth. This plate will be backlit and inscribed to memorialize the people and places that this nuclear testing has affected.