TORONTO — On 9 September 2012, the Canadian Firefighters Memorial officially opened in Ottawa. Located at the site of the capital’s devastating fire of 1900, this urban-planning memorial ensemble was collaboratively designed by PLANT Architect Inc. and Canadian visual artist and novelist Douglas Coupland. The team won the national competition hosted by the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation (CFFF) and the National Capital Commission (NCC) in 2010.
A symbolic landmark of our nation’s capital region, the memorial park honours the fire service of fallen Canadians, creates an intimate space for personal reflection, and provides a home for the CFFF’s Annual Memorial Ceremony each fall on Ottawa’s LeBreton Flats.
As a mis-en-scéne of “characters” integrated into the Canadian landscape, the Canadian Firefighters Memorial embodies key aspects of our nation’s heritage, and shapes, enhances, and inspires experiences of ritual performance. Both to fulfil the purposes of ceremony and procession, and to navigate visitors through the space, a series of architectural, sculptural, and landscape interventions were introduced: the central ceremony area is defined and framed by the site’s two opposing landforms, leading visitors along the Name Wall to the base of the Dedication Pine Tree.
The project’s iconic design features a 2 ½ life-size bronze Firefighter statue, 60 foot-high Firepole, a Dedication Pine Tree, Sloped Grove, and stone Name Wall. The Grove features sugar maple trees set amongst dense plantings of seasonally changing shrubs and perennials that achieve full red vibrancy during the fall months, creating a thick red carpet of foliage. The granite Name Wall stands as an abstract interpretation of the Canadian map and provinces—its surface carved with the names of fallen firefighters. During the Memorial Ceremony each autumn, the newly engraved names of the recently fallen are shroud in black ribbon and unveiled during the ceremony.
Within this larger ritual space lies a series of smaller, more intimate areas designed to foster introspection and support personal remembrance. The Sitting Nook and Reflection Garden are spaces of pause, allowing visitors to pay tribute to their fallen friends, family, and colleagues.
Deeply rooted in Canada’s political and physical landscape, the Canadian Firefighters Memorial explores the ways in which narratives of “home” and “nation” are constructed publicly—specifically through its iconography, design, and visual representation of Canada’s national heritage. The design of this new memorial park also considers the use of metaphor in ritual performance, prompting visitors to discover new ways of thinking about, and personally processing, experiences of memory, loss, and remembrance.
ABOUT PLANT ARCHITECT INC.
PLANT Architect Inc. is an award-winning, collaborative firm that branches into the domains of architecture, landscape, ecology, furniture, art, and graphic design. Synthesizing their expertise in these disciplines, PLANT integrates architectural, sculptural, and landscape interventions to articulate new meanings, create visceral experiences, and form critical, interdisciplinary dialogues about place, memory, ecology, history, art, and culture.
For further media enquiries, please contact: Angelica Demetriou — Communications Manager, PLANT Architect Inc. | +1 416.979.2012 ext. 230 | angelica@branchplant.com
PLANT Architect Inc.
Suite 208–101 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, ON M5V 2K2
CANADA
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