Second Place Winner

Every man that fell, in the Battle of Koshare, left behind their life, their families, their children - to fight selflessly and heroically for the liberation of their country.  

Therefore, when considering their proposal for the Koshare War Memorial project – 4M was faced with how best to answer the essential question: How can we honour and remember the lives that were given for freedom?

To answer this, 4M envisioned a design where the headstones were not merely headstones, but instead interactive and dynamic legacies – that beneath the marble engraved names, would tell their own story – to be remembered for a lifetime.

Existence of a memory relies on being remembered by other people, and the stronger the network links are to these tombs, the more that person is remembered and lives on with us.

Therefore, 4M’s design required each headstone to be networked into a main hub and via a virtual space - for where each soldier’s individual story could be told to the world through the words of  the people who knew them best – beloved friends and family.

Our proposal was therefore a development of a digital space as well as a physical space, enabling it to be accessible by everyone, from everywhere. Not only from the family and community members who knew them - but also people living in other parts of the world should be able to visit and interact with this memorial.

By understanding these heroes, and sharing them with the world, we begin to rebuild their characters, and are able to allow them to continue to help the development of the new country, by carrying it forward into the future.

By celebrating their lives through kind gestures, thoughtful work, and perceptive understanding, this is the best way we can honour them – remembered forever in the tender bosom of the country, for which they helped bring into being.