In 2010 a Dutch WWII bunker was sliced in half to create one of the most unique war memorials in the world. This video documents the transformation of bunker 599 into a work of art. The sculpture, designed by Dutch studio RAAAF and Atelier de Lyon, recently won the Architectural Review Award in 2013 for Emerging Architecture.
A diamond wire saw was used to cut through the concrete structure, then a crane came and carried away a middle section, creating a narrow slit:
It took 40 days to slice through the solid concrete bunker, which is one of 700 constructed along the New Dutch Waterline, a series of water based defences used between 1815 and 1940 to protect the cities of Muiden, Utrecht, Vreeswijk and Gorinchem.
Bunker 599 is visible from the A2 motorway, and part of a “20-year master plan begun in 2000 to transform the Dutch Waterline into a national park.” The Bunker is now recognised as a national monument in the Netherlands and is up for UNESCO World Heritage status. Stairs connect the road with a path through the bunker and out to a wooden boardwalk.
“The pier and the piles supporting it remind them that the water surrounding them is not caused by e.g. the removal of sand but rather is a shallow water plain characteristic of the inundations in times of war,” said Rietveld in a statement about the project.
(Photos by Atelier de Lyon)
