Grenfell Tower memorial design team appointed

Freehaus, a London-based team with a strong record of community-led projects, has been selected to develop the Grenfell memorial design, with significant and ongoing input from the bereaved families, survivors, and the immediate community. The Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission reports:

Freehaus is an RIBA-chartered architecture practice specialising in sustainability, heritage and community-led design, alongside advocacy roles that support the shaping of local design policy, including for the Mayor of London. Notable projects include the refurbishment of the Africa Centre headquarters in Southwark, the Rising Green Youth Hub in Wood Green, and the 639 Community Enterprise Centre in Tottenham.

Their current projects include the design of a new civic hub in Warwickshire, a series of refurbished educational spaces for the Clement James Centre, a charity based in North West Kensington, and several exhibitions across several London institutions that chart the experiences of marginalised people.

The design of the Grenfell Tower memorial will be a collaborative endeavour. Alongside Freehaus is a multi-disciplinary, specialist team, including: landscape architects, BCAL; designers of the Glade of Light memorial in Manchester; engineers Elliott Wood and services engineer, OR Consulting; town planners, Tibbalds; and lighting designers, Michael Grubb Studio. Access and inclusion consultant, Jayne Earnscliffe will also support the team, in addition to a number of other specialist consultants brought on board to ensure the memorial is exemplary. The writer and poet Yomi Ṣode, alongside engagement lead Social Place, will work closely with Freehaus to help ensure the memorial is truly community-led and creates positive and meaningful opportunities for those most impacted by the tragedy.

Freehaus directors, Jonathan Hagos and Tom Bell, said: “We’re honoured to have been chosen to design the memorial to the 72 people who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Over the last year we have been invited to listen to the experiences of those most affected by the tragedy and we are grateful to all who have shared so openly the lasting impacts of that night. We are now looking ahead to working closely with the bereaved, survivors, and the rest of the Grenfell community, to design a fitting memorial for the many lives so tragically lost.

As we take our first steps in this journey, we want to acknowledge the eight years of advocacy and purposeful action led by the Grenfell community that has brought us here. The design of this future memorial is a responsibility that we do not take lightly.”

After the launch of the design team selection process in July 2024, 28 teams registered interest for consideration. In December 2024, five teams were shortlisted. Each of the teams was assessed against technical criteria, which recognised the intention for the design of the memorial to be community-led, with bereaved and survivor voices at the heart of design development. Consequently, 55% of the technical criteria was about stakeholder engagement, communication and active listening. The remaining 45% of the technical criteria focused on team resources, their approach to design development and their approach to providing the final design.

The design team selection process included activities which incorporated feedback from bereaved and survivor families and the immediate community. The Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission have summarised those, with details of how many from the community were involved at each of those stages, discover the info graphic here.

The design team selection process was run by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Members of the Memorial Commission, along with their independent design advisers, were involved throughout. The process was also actively supported by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Many of the bereaved families, survivors and immediate community have spoken to the Memorial Commission and their independent design advisers to share what is important to them in a future memorial. These aspirations and preferences were set out in our November 2023 report. They have also been shared with the Freehaus team who will be working closely with the Grenfell community to develop the memorial design.

Letters were sent to bereaved families, survivors and the immediate community with details of introductory meetings with the Freehaus team. These meetings will be an opportunity for the Grenfell community to share how they would like to be involved in the memorial design, ask any questions or share any concerns. Freehaus would also like to hear how the Grenfell community would like to work with them going forward. Further discussions will then follow in the coming months, to shape the design and to move us closer to creating the beautiful memorial that is so needed.

The Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to share their thoughts on this journey so far. They recognise that these conversations are not easy but are important to ensure that the voices of the Grenfell community shape a fitting memorial to our loved ones. Appointing the right design team has been a very important step towards achieving that.

This article is based on the update from the The Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission, dated 24 November, 2024.