The Times is reporting that Thomas Heatherwick has met with members of the British government as recently as March in what could be discussions surrounding a future memorial to COVID-19 victims in the UK.
Heatherwick has done a number of high-profile commissions in London, the city of his birth, over the past decade. Cabinet Office Minister Chloe Smith took a meeting with the 51-year-old architect although nothing further has been confirmed in terms of his involvement.
Related: Thomas Heatherwick on Archinect Sessions podcast, "Problem-solving with Thomas Heatherwick"
A commission for a memorial has been announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a May address to parliament. The memorial will be established at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. An online fundraiser has already garnered more than £2.3 in donations from across the commonwealth.
Johnson told the House of Commons it was a “solemn duty” to construct a national memorial.
There is a fraught history recently between Heatherwick and the city. Following his Olympic success and a slew of other commissions, the designer was picked in competition to build the so-called “Garden Bridge” by a local government body called Transport for London (TFL). The competition was later revealed to have been rigged in favor of the studio and scrapped, leaving taxpayers to foot a £43m bill for a project that was never completed.
Now, with past controversies in mind, London will take the lead in responding to the pandemic through publicly funded memorials. Archinect will have more on future memorial developments as they become available.
16 Comments
Whatever happened to competitions for such things? Compare with the example of Maya Lin in the competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
It's as if it's more important to have the Heatherwick brand for the project than finding the best design.
And I'm not looking forward to what he comes up with.
Well he has built a reputation with governments and developers as the pre-eminent artist-builder of our times.
Liberace had a large reputation and pleased the crowds. My point is that a competition would bring fresh voices and different design visions to the public. The variety of submissions would be an education in itself. Also I would think this is a modest project, so it would give lesser knowns and those with limited resources a chance, possibly an opening into a career.
This kind of foresight disturbing.
doing memorials mid event. What’s next, pre memorials…”it’ll happen just wait”
LOLZ
Isn't this the 3rd one? Anyway shouldn't he do a memorial for the Vessel first?
Lol. a memorial to the people jumping from his creation. Broken window theory much.
Unsurprising you missed the point
entirely.
*Unsurprisingly*
How about a nice bronze bust (ten times normal life size) of Tony Blair laughing?
all jokes aside. This is ridiculous…but if I was given this task…I suppose I’d do something digital in real-time…maybe programmed for some future end. Who did that memorial that screws itself into the ground??
I didn't read closely. He was reported to be consulting, and it isn't clear he's even doing that:
"Despite recent reporting, we'd like to confirm that Heatherwick Studio isn't involved in designing a national Covid memorial," the studio told Dezeen.
https://www.dezeen.com/2021/07...
lol. Is it the photo that causes people to forget how to read? That boylike curiosity in the face? The stubbly beard? The carefully unkempt hair? What's the trigger?
tbh i'm glad someone in govt is thinking about a time when this is behind us, because right now it is really hard to see it.
he should design a memorial for the victims of the vessel
There are precedents:
The Plague Column in Vienna.
The column has a complex iconography, the basic message of which is that the plague and the Ottomans' Second Siege of Vienna (1683), both of them punishments for sin, were averted or defeated by the piety and intercession of the Emperor Leopold I.
Good ol' Leopold.
Detail:
Heatherwick, I'm sure, is eating his heart out.
Text and image via our good buddies at Wikipedia.
It seems to me the UK would want to wait until we're sure we're done with this thing before putting up a memorial, else it won't be well received.
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