Teams led by Foster & Partners, Heatherwick Studio and Wilkinson Eyre vying for “one of the most significant design projects in recent British history”
Foster & Partners, Heatherwick Studio and Wilkinson Eyre are among five design teams shortlisted by the government in the contest to design a memorial to Queen Elizabeth II.
Two further teams led by landscape architects Tom Stuart-Smith and J&L Gibbons have also made the second round of the open competition launched in December last year.
The Cabinet Office has described the permanent £46m memorial, which will be located in St James’s Park, as “one of the most significant design projects in recent British history”.
Shortlist for the Queen Elizabeth II National Memorial
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Foster & Partners with Yinka Shonibare and Michel Desvigne Paysagiste
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Heatherwick Studio with Halima Cassell, MRG Studio, Webb Yates and Arup
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J&L Gibbons with Michael Levine RDI, William Matthews Associates, Structure Workshop and Arup
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Tom Stuart-Smith with Jamie Fobert Architects, Adam Lowe (Factum Arte) and Structure Workshop
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Wilkinson Eyre with Lisa Vandy and Fiona Clark, Andy Sturgeon Design, Atelier One and Hilson Moran
Design teams have been asked to create a masterplan that celebrates the late Queen’s life of service while providing spaces for reflection on the chosen site, which covers land either side of the pathway leading to the park’s lake.
Specific interventions will include the replacement of the 1950s Blue Bridge, a statue of the late Queen designed by a sculptor appointed by the winning team, new landscaping and artistic installations.
The winning team will be announced this summer alongside the appointment of the team’s chosen artist or sculptor, with the final design to be formally announced in April next year to coincide with what would have been Queen Elizabeth’s hundredth birthday.
The competition is being run by the The Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, chaired by the Queen’s former private secretary Robin Janvrin, which is working with Malcolm Reading Consultants.
Janvrin has said the memorial “must be - simply - a beautiful place, somewhere to visit with family and friends, to enjoy and to reflect on an extraordinary life.”
Janvrin, a British naval officer who was the Queen’s private secretary from 1999 to 2007, said tams would be challenged in the second stage to “evoke memories of Queen Elizabeth II’s outstanding contribution to national life and to tell the story of Her Majesty’s long reign through an original masterplan that is sensitive to the unique setting”.
The competition follows extensive engagement by the committee with the four nations of the United Kingdom to inform its scope and brief.
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