Hangar 17 at the JFK International Airport in New York City contains some of the strangest objects we might expect to encounter under the description artifacts. Twisted steel beams; battered and burned cars and ambulances; odd personal items bearing the traces of violence; items from a mall once lively with customers but no more—this is the stuff of many possible memorials to the 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States, collected and preserved for that very purpose. The strangest thing is, this hangar, in all its unpretentious modesty may be the best memorial of its kind to the event that will ever be devised.
The images, by Francesc Torres show stacks of branching steel facade columns, merchandise from the WTC shops, business cards and drawings found amid the wreckage, and strange “composites”: disparate matter melted and fused into lumps. More images by Torres for National Geographic here.
Diffusive Architectures 
