Latin American architecture firm Gómez Platero has unveiled a design for a circular monument in Uruguay to remember coronavirus victims.
The proposed World Memorial to the Pandemic is a large sculpture designed to be installed on water off the coast of Uruguay.

Designed by Gómez Platero, it is intended to offer visitors a sensorial experience and safe place to reflect and remember victims of Covid-19. If built, it will be the first large-scale memorial to do so, according to the studio.

"Architecture is a powerful tool to transform the world," director and lead architect Martín Gómez Platero said. "It is, above all, a collective and historical reality, made of small fragments which survive over time and become culture." "By creating a memorial capable of activating senses and memories in this way, we can remind our visitors ? as the pandemic has ? that we as human beings are subordinate to nature and not the other way around."

A long pedestrian walkway will extend from the waterfront to the main ring-shaped platform, which will measure 40 metres in diameter. At the centre of the sculpture there will be a 10-metre-wide hole where rocks and water underneath will poke through.

Its concave surface will be constructed using concrete, while its underside will be faced with Corten steel, a durable material that requires little maintenance as it will naturally weather over time as the terrain and water level around the sculpture change.

The sp...