Polynational War Memorial News

Introducing the war memorial Google Map

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:08:30 +0100

In the five years that this web site has been up Ive been getting numerous questions about directions, opening hours, and event programming, for specific memorials and monuments. Ive slowly come to realize that many of you, who visit these pages, use the information to plan trips and I have gradually included services that will make it a little bit easier to make those plans. One important feature that was added some months ago is geocode coordinates for some of the physical memorials and monuments in the database and the use of the Google Maps API to present their locations. I have now collected all those geocoded locations in one single map that can be explored on this website or directly on Google Maps, as a way to make it a bit easier for you to find the directions to the memorial you want to visit. This is really just the beginning, more geocoded locations will follow. And if you want to help by adding new locations to the Google map, I strongly encourage you to do so. The map is open for collaborations. View the map at This site Google maps

Le Memorial in Caen - Narratives of War and Peace

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:36:54 +0100

The first in a series of reports from a trip to the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy and its surroundings that was made by the author in August 2009 describing a visit to Le Memorial or Musee Memorial de la Paix (the Memorial Museum for Peace).

New Video: Full Interview with Peter Tonkin

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:00:00 +0100

This is the full interview with Peter Tonkin of TZG Architects in Sydney that was made in 2003. Peter Tonkin has designed several war memorials, sometimes in collaboration with artists, for example the Memorial to the Australian Forces in the Vietnam War, in Canberra, and the Memorial to the Australian Forces in WWI and WWII, in London. In this video he is talking about those and other projects, about utopianism in architecture and war memorials in general. Camera: Karin Willen. Interviewer: Jon Brunberg.

New series: Memorialization at the D-Day beaches

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:00:00 +0100

The long, sandy, beaches, the dramatic landscape with its steep cliffs, and the picturesque villages in northern France's Calvados region attract many holiday-makers during the summer season. It would be like any other region of this kind if it weren't for its many memorials, cemeteries and museums. Many of the tourists that visit the beaches don't come for the swimming or sailing, but to remember the loss of their relatives or comrades that fell during the invasion of Normandy on June 6th 1944 and the following campaign to liberate Europe from Nazi rule. Others, such as myself, come for the sensation of being on historic grounds, and perhaps also with the ambition to try to figure out what it means for mankind today, and to solve the mysteries of power and conflict. This was at least the reason that I visited the cities of Cean and Bayuex and the villages of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Colleville-sur-Mer and Vierville-sur-Mer during ten days in August 2009. I had other aims with that journey as well. I wanted to learn how those events, and the memorials that it produces, affects tourism, the communities and their inhabitants, a knowledge that I hope will be of great value when the work with the Polynational War Memorial proceeds into the next phase. This was a reconnaissance trip to get a picture of the extent of memoralization in a specific, and the perhaps also best known, sector of this region; Omaha Beach. Over the coming month I will post a series of articles about my findings on this website. I have no personal connections to the battles that took place at the beaches known as Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno or Sword. None of my relatives took part when allied soldiers stormed the beaches under a hail of bullets and grenades (even though it could have been so if not my my father had fled Estonia a couple of months earlier for fear of being forcibly drafted into the SS by the Germans that then occupied his country). And still, what happened here has affected me as well. World War II shook the fundaments of the world, and especially of Europe - indeed even the fundaments of humanity itself. It is impossible to know what would have happened if the invasion had failed, but I am convinced that Europe would have been a much darker place live in.

Introducing the memorial-by-country map

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:00:00 +0100

We're now introducing the nifty memorial-by-country map that allows you to find a list of memorials for a specific country by clicking on it on a map. Countries marked red have information about memorials in the database. Click the country to zoom in and then the "info"-icon to get a list of memorials for each country. Click sea to zoom out fully. The map is powered by DIY Map.

Entering phase #2

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:00:00 +0100

These are indeed exiting times for the project, which is now moving into a period where phase #2 overlaps with phase #3. This means that the project will take one step further in terms of realization. To mark this new beginning we have made a lot of updates to the website. The most important updates are listed at the end of this editorial. Phase #3 is dedicated to research about large scale architectonic structures and how they affect, cities, countries and larger regions. The first research trip will go to Normandy in August followed by London and Berlin to look at how memorials affect tourism, economy and infrastructure. A series of reports from those trips will be published on the website during the fall along with other previously unpublished interviews. This first research trip is sponsored by Helge Ax:son Johnson Memorial Foundation.

Excerpt from Part 3: the Interfaith Centre

Sun, 03 May 2009 01:00:00 +0100

You can now view an excerpt from the video "Polynational War Memorial, Part 3: the Interfaith Centre". The Quicktime player is needed to view the video. The video explains the program of the Interfaith Centre that was designed by Testbedstudio. Soundtrack by Fred Saboonchi and voice by Lisette Merenciana.

2nd design project: the Unimune

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:00:00 +0100

WANÅS 2008: Loss

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:00:00 +0100

War memorial by Claes Sörstedt for A10

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:00:00 +0100

An article for the Architecture Magazine A10 written by Claes Sörstedt who is an architect and critic, whose writing frequently appear in magazines such as A10 and Arkitektur.