French firms Coldefy & Associés and RDAI have beaten competition from Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Studio Libeskind to win a contest to build a museum and memorial dedicated to the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.

Coldefy & Associés and RDAI's National Pulse Memorial & Museum will commemorate victims of the 12 June 2016. The tragedy took place on 12 June 2016 when Omar Mateen opened fire on attendees at the nightclub killing 49 and injuring 68.

The contest organised by Dovetail Design Strategists asked contestants to come up with a permanent memorial on the site of the club at 1912 S Orange Avenue and a museum building for a plot a few blocks away. The winning design was announced yesterday from a shortlist that also included MVRDV, Heneghan Peng Architects and MASS Design Group.
In the winning proposal for the memorial, the existing nightclub will be preserved and marked by a jagged crevice that will form a place for repose for visitors. A circular white canopy will wrap the existing nightclub to provide covered seating for visitors, among 49 trees planted to to commemorate the victims.

Forty-nine colourful stripes ? symbolic of the victims ? will be placed around the former nightclub and become more densely packed circle closer to the structure. The outside of this colourful feature will be defined by a slender opening that will capture water running from an existing fountain.

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