Design a memorial to what we would hope will be the last ever nuclear weapons: The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial / Edition #5 is launched!

With the future in such a state of uncertainty and political relationships more strained than ever, there is one silent threat that could end up being more deadly and dangerous to humanity than a hundred pandemics: nuclear weapons.

In 1945, the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively ending World War II and killing well over 100,000 people, the majority of whom were civilians. The bombing of Nagasaki was the second and final time a country deployed a nuclear weapon in combat. However, it wasn’t the last nuclear explosion, as testing of controlled explosions continued for years.

On the 75th anniversary of the bombing, Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue called on Japanese President Shinzo Abe and the central government to sign and ratify the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. However, there has been little if any official progress towards an international ban on nuclear weapons since then.

We support the call for a ban on nuclear weapons and as the threat of nuclear bombs is ever present, we are continuing our annual architecture competition to create “The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial”.

The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial / Edition #5 is the fifth annual competition in which participants are tasked with creating a memorial located within a decommissioned nuclear weapon testing site. In response to the global silence surrounding the issue of nuclear weapons, participants in The Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial / Edition #5 competition must submit their designs with NO DESCRIPTION TEXT. The architecture ideas must be communicated strictly with visuals. We are asking participants to design a building or structure in which the architecture would do all the talking. 

PRIZES

3 winning proposals, Student award recipient and 6 honourable mentions will be selected. Buildner will award a total of 10,000 € in prize money to competition winners as follows:

1st Prize - 5,000 €
2nd Prize - 3,000 €
3rd Prize - 1,000 €
+ 6 honourable mentions

Buildner Student Award - 1,000 € 

[left] The Trinity explosion; [right] Wrecked framework of the Museum of Science and Industry in Hiroshima, Japan 1945 © Everett Collection

Data from: Arms Control Association Source: Hans M. Kristensen, Matt Kordas, U.S. Department of State, and Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

COMPETITION SCHEDULE

Early Bird Registration: July 4 – September 18
Advance Registration: September 19 – November 6
Last Minute Registration: November 7 – January 16

Final registration deadline: January 16, 2025
Closing date for submission: February 19, 2025 (11:59 p.m. LONDON TIME) Announcement of the winners: March 26, 2025

More:  https://architecturecompetitions.com/nuclearbombmemorial5/