Project Description
Excerpt: The “Circle of Rebirth National War Memorial” was built for honoring and giving tribute to Indian Armed Forces. Each fallen soldier is imagined as a brick in the process of nation building and arranged as series of concentric rings, symbolizing the act of protection, sacrifice and bravery culminating in the immortal presence in the form of eternal flame.
[Text submitted by the Architect] The concept of rebirth is inspired from the quote of Captain Vikram Batra “Either I will come back after hoisting the Tricolour, or I will come back wrapped in it, but I will be back for sure.”
Invisible but strongly present, the NWM is the spatial manifestation of the idea of rebirth, gestated on the stories of, the life and struggle of unsung soldiers who have sacrificed themselves for the sake of nation. Culminating the Raj Path of the Lutyens Delhi, behind the India gate, this semi-subterranean intervention, spreads over 42 acres in the C- hexagon, retaining the identity as “people’s place” and embracing the memory of love, affection and pain. Each fallen soldier is imagined as a brick in the process of nation building and arranged as series of concentric rings, symbolizing the act of protection, sacrifice and bravery culminating in the immortal presence in the form of eternal flame.
Six decades of void:
The request for the National War Memorial (NWM), India was placed by the armed forces in 1960. However, the consideration acquired momentum in 2015 and the construction was approved within the National capital’s heritage zone of the British Imperial Times. Later, an International two stage competition was held for the design and implementation of the NWM by the Ministry of Defense, Government of India. WEBE Design Lab won both the first and the third place. The winning entry headed by Ar Yogesh Chandrahasan was commissioned for construction. India’s NWM was finally inaugurated on 25th Feb 2019 by Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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