Murambi Memorial

 

This project is centered on the main building in Murambi, a school that has been left vacated since the genocide in 1994. The school classrooms have had over eight hundred corpses left untouched. On the ground floor on the main building new walls were constructed to create a space that allowed for the design of the exhibition and burial place. The open hall on the ground floor of the main building now has a serpentine pathway, which leads visitors first to an exhibition describing the context of the genocide, then into the burial rooms. The burial rooms allow some of the preserved human remains to be viewed, while at the same time they are also buried with some dignity.

Construction work included: new walls, plastering, Terrazzo walkways, power cables, lighting, painting, curtains, toilets, a reception counter, seats, railings, generator, gardens, external paths, car-parking, and landscaping.

Murambi genocide memorial is one of the most known and visited sites because of its historical context. This site is built in the former Zone Turquoise created and controlled by the French troops. More than 40,000 people were killed there in three days (19th - 22nd of April 1994). These victims were in the buildings of the school called “Ecole Technique Officielle” which was still being built at the time.
In 1995, survivors gathered together with members of a survivors’ association called “Amagaju” and came up with the idea of gathering all the victims’ remains that were scattered over different regions of Murambi, in order to bury them with dignity. During this operation, many corpses were found where the French troops had constructed a volley-ball court. The first burial activities were done in April 1996. The Murambi site expositions about genocide use modern techniques to remind the visitors of this horrific genocide.
To preserve more information about Murambi during the1994 genocide, oral testimonies have been recorded by African Rights. Some videos have been preserved by the communication services of MIJSPOC and the genocide memorial site of Gisozi (Kigali.)