In 2010 a Dutch WWII bunker was sliced in half to create one of the most unique war memorials in the world. This video documents the transformation of bunker 599 into a work of art. The sculpture, designed by Dutch studio RAAAF and Atelier de Lyon, recently won the Architectural Review Award in 2013 for Emerging Architecture.
A diamond wire saw was used to cut through the concrete structure, then a crane came and carried away a middle section, creating a narrow slit:
It took 40 days to slice through the solid concrete bunker, which is one of 700 constructed along the New Dutch Waterline, a series of water based defences used between 1815 and 1940 to protect the cities of Muiden, Utrecht, Vreeswijk and Gorinchem. [Dezeen]
Bunker 599 is visible from the A2 motorway, and part of a "20-year master plan begun in 2000 to transform the Dutch Waterline into a national park." The Bunker is now recognized as a national monument in the Netherlands and is up for UNESCO World Heritage status. Stairs connect the road with a path through the bunker and out to a wooden boardwalk.
"The pier and the piles supporting it remind them that the water surrounding them is not caused by e.g. the removal of sand but rather is a shallow water plain characteristic of the inundations in times of war," said Rietveld in a statement about the project. [Dezeen]
(Photos by Atelier de Lyon)