_The design of AGMM, created in 2002-2005 for the trustees of the museum under the auspices of Chairman Gerard L. Cafesjian, attempted to apply the concept of genocide to a built object in Washington D.C. Through our research, genocide was exposed as an ahistorical construct, an unending repeating circular (spiral) process through time, a process unable to transfer the events it contains into historical facts due to their denial by the descendants of the crime's perpetrator. Genocide is forgotten (the victims cannot speak of their experiences), thus comes the next spiral segment and the begetting of another genocide, onward and onward, an algorithm of death. The spiraling ramps of the museum and the facade were the product of such thought. We viewed this as an opportunity for an edifice to guide the general public via emotional response to form, not only to its exhibitions. Traditional Armenian ashlar architecture, with a highly cohesive formal vocabulary and system, was a source of inspiration in the designs as it was developed over this period.
Texts and images from: Doon Architecture
