Resting place: a simple and moving memorial to the unknown dead takes its place in Japanese tradition and topography.

The huge Haizuka dam in the north-west of Hiroshima prefecture of Japan is inundating large areas of countryside. To ameliorate the dam's impact, the government and the town of Mirasaka commissioned a series of earthworks, one of which was a cemetery for the unknown people whose unmarked graves were flooded by the waters of the dam.

Hideki Yoshimatsu and Archipro Architects, who had been evolved in the earthworks projects for several years, were required by local people to 'make a memorial ... without a religious element'. The site was at the north-east tip of the existing Nozomigaoka Cemetery. from which it takes its fundamental geometry of parallel paths diagonally crossing the site.

The unknown people are represented by 1500 stainless-steel rods, 9mm diameter, placed between the paths 300mm apart and 2m high. They form abstracted groves that move slightly in the wind and are made more dramatic by planting trees round the cemetery's perimeter, so the rods will be seen in silhouette against the dark vegetation. A sacred tree, Tarayoh, was replanted at the apex of the composition.

The silver groves stand on a flat platform where the rods are supported in 17mm diameter stainless-steel tubes set vertically in reinforced-concrete bases. Concrete is masked by the crushed stone of the paths, and smooth, rounded carefully graded stones round the bases of the rods. By the sloping approach path, the smooth stones (which were taken from parts of the river bed to be covered by the waters of the dam) are held in place with welded stainless-steel mesh. A gentle monument has been created with the greatest economy of means. All members of the jury were impressed by the place's power, its perceptive use of materials, and its subtle response to Japanese tradition.

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Hideki Yoshimatsu+archlpro architects, Tokyo

Project architect

Michlo Maeda