Award Cycle: 2020-2022 Cycle
Status: Shortlisted
Country of origin: Tunisia
Location: Zarzis, Tunisia
Client: Rachid Koraïchi
Architect: Artist Rachid Koraïchi
Completed: 2020
On Tunisia’s southern coast, the project is a memorial to and graveyard for migrants who drowned whilst crossing the Mediterranean. The artist Rachid Koraïchi initiated the project when he discovered the situation, bought a plot of land and designed the entire project: A small residence for a caretaker, a morgue and a doctor’s office, public sanitary facilities and an ecumenical prayer room form the architectural components in the walled complex. Due to the coastal location, the 600 graves are waterproofed. The morgue contains state-of-the-art facilities to help identify the badly decomposed bodies washed ashore and previously left to decay. All of the walls, the domed-and-vaulted buildings, gravestones and tile paving were crafted entirely by hand, and much of the work was undertaken by migrants who survived the perilous crossing.