Reflecting Absence - Void

Reflecting Absence - Void, a photo by jankor on Flickr.

Reflecting Absence, one of the two pools at the 9/11 memorial for the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sep 11, 2001 by architects Michael Arad and Peter Walker. Their submission text for the competition can be found here: www.wtcsitememorial.org/fin7.html
The pools reflect the footprint of the former World Trade Center towers. The water goes over the edge and causes an enormous white noise and sucking feeling. Optically, the water pulls the viewer down to the level where the water collects in the pool before it disappears into a huge, square shaped hole in the middle of the pool. The viewer can't see where this water goes, it simply disappears in a roar while sometimes spray above the pools collects the colors of the rainbow. Hardly any memorial has ever touched me so intensely.