Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa May/June 2014 | Page 78

WYNAND VILJOEN
UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE
Wynand Viljoen’s thesis, entitled Raptured, is a burial complex for the evacuees
of Pripyat.
Viljoen says, “On 26 April 1986, the worst nuclear accident in history played
out at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Chernobyl, and the idea of a radioactive landscape, serve as a catalyst for a
para-normal context. Normal rules of architecture don’t apply here. The town of Pripyat, close
to the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant, was evacuated and stands today as an empty radioactive
ghost town. The main square (Lenin Square) was chosen as the site for this thesis.”
This thesis aims to reunite the evacuees with their town through the only way possible, namely in
death. The essence of the building is to decay, like radioactivity, over a period of 800 years. Through
this decay, and the careful use of materials, the building will open towards the same winds that
spread the radioactivity over the landscape, only now, after 800 years; the ashes of the people will
be spread over a clean landscape.

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Student Awards