"I Like the Follow because we found nothing which are relationship with Death"
Gilles Clément
The Baltic Way Memorial is a unique opportunity to celebrate life, with all its richness and diversity. And which other way to honor life than through life itself? In that sense, the memorial is composed of a spontaneous garden, which means a place where nature takes back its rights. In a context surrounded by cars, speed and noise, life comes back, to create an island of peace and beauty in the middle of the urban chaos.
The site, a neglected urban land, a part of the ‘third landscape’ (a notion developed by Gilles Clément, a French paysagist), is a portion of nature that needs to be respected. The spontaneous garden is a way to let nature do its job, and offer space and respect necessary to do it. Simply by preparing the soil, and avoiding to cover it, the site can quickly host spontaneous pioneer species, that would enrich the soil and recreate humuns. Within a few years, those first species would be replaced by a rich floral and herbaceous stratum, and then shrubs that will become large trees. This spontaneous and local diversity and richness of species can be seen as a metaphor of the diversity of people gathering during the Baltic Way.
LIVING MEMORY Architecture idea competition organised by Bee breeders Credits : Benjamin Nicaud & Victor Trosset Riga, Latvia, 2015
