kimmel eshkolot architects articulates mount herzl memorial around funnel of stone bricks

kimmel eshkolot architects has completed a memorial in israel that commemorates the country’s fallen soldiers. located on jerusalem’s mount herzl, the ‘memorial hall of israel’s fallen’ features an undulating funnel-shaped formation of bricks that opens to the sky, flooding the void with natural light. the memorial includes a 250 meter-long continuous ‘wall of names’ that wraps around the central sculptural brick structure. this comprises more than 23,000 concrete bricks each individually engraved with the name of a soldier and their date of decease.

UPDATE: this project was shortlisted in the ‘civic and community – completed buildings’ category at the 2018 world architecture festival.

all images by amit geron

kimmel eshkolot architects developed the scheme as an interior project where the ground was excavated to allow daylight to enter. conceived as both a personal and collective structure, the light that enters through the overhead oculus is filtered through the funnel and onto the interior surfaces. several 1:1 mockups of the project were built at ETH zurich. here, the architects, together with ackerstein industries and merkava, developed a construction method that involved concrete bricks screwed together at pre-cut joints.

a series of stairs leads to the entrance of the hall

a continuous ‘wall of names’ wraps around the central brick structure

the light that enters through the overhead oculus is filtered through the funnel

the concrete bricks are screwed together at pre-cut joints

several 1:1 mockups of the project were built at ETH zurich

walkways spiral around the perimeter of the structure

inside the tubular structure sits the memorial’s central light funnel

more than 23,000 bricks are each engraved with the name of a soldier and their date of decease

the bricks create a void with an opening at the top

the form of the structure follows the topography of the mountain

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project info:

location: jerusalem, isreal
client: ministry of defence – families and commemoration department
architect: kimmel eshkolot architects in collaboration with kalush chechick architects
project architects: etan kimmel and limor amrani
structural engineer: haim & yehiel steinberg structural engineering
construction manager: eliezer rahat and daniel rahat (E.D. rahat engineering coordination and management ltd.)
design phase manager and coordinator: eran garber E.S.L engineers
contractor firm: green construction ltd.
completion: 2017