As the search begins for a design team, Paul Boateng, co-chair of the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission, explains the many roles of the memorial for a traumatised and marginalised community
UPDATE 21 JANUARY 2025 – Five practices have now been shortlisted: Curl la Tourelle Head; Freehaus; George King Architects x Grow to Know; New South; and Office Sian. Their full details can be found at the end of this article. This article was originally published on 10 July 2024.
Today, the process begins to find a design team to create a memorial that will act as an enduring tribute to the 72 lives lost in the Grenfell Tower fire in north Kensington on 14 June 2017. A little over seven years on from that night, and almost five years since the founding of the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission, this is a hugely significant moment for the entire community affected by the tragedy. And it’s one about which the Commission’s co-chair Paul Boateng – the Labour peer and former Member of Parliament for Brent South – feels very strongly.
‘This is a community that I began my practice of law in 50 years ago,’ he explains. ‘It’s a community that I know very well – it’s exciting, diverse, vibrant, and very creative. But it is also a community that is deeply traumatised, and hurt, by the catastrophe itself, but also because it has been consistently ignored, marginalised, and disrespected over decades.’
Along with Thelma Stober, head of legal and company secretary at the Local Government Association, and herself a survivor of the London bombings of 2005, Boateng has been working closely with the Grenfell community, including its 10 representatives on the Commission. As co-chairs, Boateng’s and Stober’s goal has always been to ensure that the voices and wishes of bereaved families, survivors and local residents remain central to the process throughout, guiding both its direction and its outcomes, to achieve a respectful, lasting and sustainable memorial, honouring those who lost their lives.
Boateng says: ‘What this community wants above all is justice. This memorial has to reflect that, but importantly it needs to be a sacred space, a place built and designed to last; it needs to be a place of peace, remembrance and reflection; it needs to have impact, and height, and light, and water.’
With a landscaped garden as a central element, joined by appropriate monuments or structures, the memorial should be peaceful and reflective. It should create a space for thought, and provide a sense of hope and community, but it also needs to be bold, acting as a visible testament to the tragedy. In achieving this, its design will need to engage with the diverse religious and cultural backgrounds in the community, incorporating a spiritual quality that encompasses multiple faiths and accommodates different needs and practices, including private areas for those who need solitude. Boateng sees this diversity very much as a positive.
‘I don’t regard the rich mix of faiths and culture at Grenfell as being in any way challenging,’ he says. ‘It’s a wonderful opportunity, which you have to open yourself up to, and I expect the design teams in this competition to see it likewise. And one of the positive aspects throughout has been the way in which the different faiths in the community have always worked together – that was very clear in the aftermath of these tragic events, and it has been a consistent during the life of the Commission.’
Another aspect of that diversity that Boateng is keen to stress is the Commission’s ongoing contact with young people: ‘We’ve engaged with children and the young throughout, because not only were children among the 72 victims, but today they live in the shadow of Grenfell Tower, that space is central to their lives, so they need to be involved, and it needs to be a place that they have a sense of belonging to. It is a demanding brief. But,’ he adds, ‘that’s why it’s a wonderful opportunity for great, innovative and impactful design.'
Boateng and Stober are determined that the competition will attract ‘the brightest and best globally, who recognise the professional opportunity, and will put the community at the heart of the whole process’. At this stage, interested design teams will need to demonstrate a wide variety of relevant expertise, from architecture and landscape to mechanical and structural engineering. They will also need to show their understanding and experience of designing in collaboration with local communities in an inclusive, compassionate manner. Five teams will be shortlisted in the autumn, at which stage the process will move on to the development of an initial proposal with the involvement of the Grenfell community, to arrive at an exceptional design to which they will feel a strong and lasting connection.
Boateng explains: ‘What we expect of this design process is to produce something that is unique, and a reflection of the community. It’s not a question of taking a bit from here, a bit from there. We expect the competition, and ultimately the whole process, to produce a design that will reflect the experience of a marginalised and disrespected community who have been the victims of the most appalling and systemic neglect, and a failure to protect them. That’s why this memorial has to be impactful, a place of peace and memory. And it has to be a place that is quite literally a monument to a towering injustice.’
An additional complexity is provided by the uncertain future of Grenfell Tower itself, a matter which remains in the hands of the government. The lack of progress on this front is a cause of frustration for Boateng, and for the Grenfell community, and may well require considerable flexibility on the part of the selected design team.
‘This decision should have been made, frankly, before the election,’ he says. ‘The concern now on the part of the community is that they want to see progress. They want us to get on with this, they have been denied justice, they should not be denied a fitting, impactful and perpetual memorial. There can’t be peace without justice. And inevitably the memorial has to reflect that.’
Asked what he hopes from the design teams applying to this competition, Boateng replies: ‘The very best. I’m serious. Thelma and I see it as our job to reflect this community that’s been too long neglected, and for this community we want nothing but the best. Let that message go out very clearly. It was a unique tragedy and the memorial, and the successful design team, will need to be equally unique.'
This competition is now closed to entries – you can find the original design brief here. The selection process is being managed and administered by RIBA Competitions on behalf of the Commission and the Grenfell community.
Profiles provided by the five shortlisted practices are below:
Curl La Tourelle + Head
‘Curl La Tourelle + Head is a progressive and contemporary UK-based community of architects that focuses on sustainable and practical designs through a creative dialogue with our clients, consultants, contractors and communities. We translate aspirations into appropriate, innovative and joyful buildings through integrated, context-specific design, developing hard-working buildings to ensure maximum quality and value.’
Freehaus
‘Freehaus is an award-winning practice based in London and Oxfordshire, seeking to demonstrate the positive impact good design can have; not only on the way we live but also on the way we interact with each other and the world around us. With a background in architecture, we also have specialisms in sustainability, heritage and community-led design, we work at all scales and across a breadth of sectors.’
George King Architects x Grow to Know
George King Architects
‘George King Architects is a London-based design studio that works within the disciplines of architecture, art and landscape to create unique works that unites these fields. With an emphasis on place-making, our work combines innovative design processes with advanced fabrication techniques and expert craftsmanship to create works that are elegant, poetic, experiential and sustainable.’
Grow to Know
Cultivating community, creative and cultural access to nature and action, Grow to Know is a London-based founded as not-for-profit in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic by Tayshan Hayden-Smith, who helped to lead on reclaiming space for community and nature under the Westway at Maxilla in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, as the community sought understanding, solace and justice.
New South
‘New South is an international office of architecture, urbanism and anthropology based in Paris and Brussels. To paraphrase bell hooks, we put the margin at the centre. Through our projects, we question the social, political and economic dynamics that act upon territories and form their architecture. New South develops tactical proposals adapted to various scales. Our architecture is an opportunity to reveal what is already there and to give voice to invisible narratives.’
Office Sian
‘Office Sian is an award-winning architecture and design Studio based in London, working with private clients, community organisations and local authorities to design and deliver better, equitable and meaningful buildings for all to enjoy. We are forever trying to learn from other people’s journeys, and know that by being open and accountable about privilege, or the lack of it, can change society for the better.’