Living History to Built Expression
We see a profound opportunity prior to finalizing the design to build on the critical work performed by The Special Committee on Commemoration by further engaging the community to recover knowledge, daylight and dignify stories, and facilitate healing.
Our design process, Remembrance Design, engages historically disenfranchised and negatively impacted communities, in recognition of their history, for use as a design framework intent on an inclusive and culturally sustainable future. Remembrance Design allows design professionals a method of guiding communities through a process of reconciliation with the past and planning a shared vision for the future.
The first work of Remembrance Design is recovering what needs to be remembered.
Remembrance Design informs the design process with a level of care that results in an experience, in built form, rich in a distinct sense of culture. For communities whose experiences and culture have been suppressed, our team mines for individual stories and perspectives through robust engagement sessions to identify the overlapping elements that emerge as integral themes.
Restorative Justice
Drawing on the words and stories that emerge from collective engagement with shared history and experiences—both what is hard to remember and what brings joy—we use design as a medium to amplify the process of healing, celebration, and action that both realize a vision and nurture the conditions of historic change.
There are few precedents for the reparative work that Remembrance Design undertakes. The importance of these inclusive interactions cannot be overstated.
Shown: Community engagement workshops for Destination Crenshaw in Los Angeles, Historic Emancipation Park in Houston, and Sycamore Hill Gateway at Greenville Town Common in North Carolina.
