UN Memorial / ACME


© ACME

London-based architecture firm ACME was awarded third prize in a recent competition to design a United Nations memorial. Initiated by the city of Chungju in South Korea, the selected memorial will rest in the city’s UN Peace Park. ACME’s proposal is comprised of a 1,500 seating assembly, two conference halls, a theater and exhibition spaces. The organization of the memorial is metaphorically modeled similarly to the United Nations, where many parts make up the whole.

More about the memorial after the break.




Similar to how the UN is formed by individual nations, the memorial entails a cube comprised of smaller “cells.” These cells, which are meant to represent the “collective nature of the UN’s identity” fuse together to create the final shape. Each piece functions differently as some provide exhibition space and others function as offices and restaurants. ACME explained that the “memorial should represent the nature of the United Nations, where many individual nations come together to create one entity, but without losing their individual identities.”




ACME, London
Kelvin Chu , Daewon Kwak , Friedrich Ludwig , Isabel de la Mora , Monica Prenziuso, Teresa Yeh

Yooshin Architects & Engineers
Kim Chidok, Daehee Lee, Samyong Park, Daeoh Kwon, Hyunkyoung Oh, Jungheum Yun

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