Xix, A Memorial and Study on the Proximity and Proportion of the Circle and the Square

Programmatically, the aim of the thesis is to create a new place to commemorate the lives lost in the Guatemalan Civil War in the town of Xix (pronounced â sheeshâ ), Guatemala. Currently, Xixâ s boarding school is the only place that houses a memorial for those 113 lives lost in Xix during the war. The existing memorial pavilion that houses a statue and commemorative plaque are being weathered by the elements. It is only a matter of time before the statue and plaque are overcome by the elements. This situation resulted in a complete transformation in the way that Xix remembers the war. This thesis project reroutes the communityâ s Memorial Day parade so that the procession ends at the proposed memorial plaza. Parade goers travel through the town of Xix to the boarding school where the new memorial is. The new memorial consist of a bridge that leads to a room that houses the existing statue and plaque, and the room has a balcony that overlooks a plaza that includes a small green amphitheater and memorial fountain.

The circle and the square became the generating forms for this place, and through an exploration of nineteen relationships that could be shared among the circle and the square two were found dominate in regulating many possible relationships. Proximity was the first of the two dominate relationships and the second is proportion. The exploration is set in two stages: research (Circling the Square: Proximity and Proportions), and demonstration of the dominate relationships (Site: Circular Proximity, Elevations + Sections: Boundary of Proportions, and Squaring the Circle).