UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre

London, United Kingdom | 2016- 

In collaboration with Adjaye Associates and Ron Arad Architects, our design for the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, focuses on establishing a nationally significant landmark for current and future generations to reflect, mourn and learn. It was essential that the proposal not only allowed its current activities to remain, but rather enhance the user experience.

Our design for a softly sloping landscape provides visitors with a new vantage point to the River Thames: a renewed perspective and a distinctive entry point for the underground Learning Centre. The Memorial Courtyard will be a unique, contemplative space for visitors to linger amongst a landscape that offers calm reflection, formal and informal ceremonies, services, and other reverent gatherings.

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“The landscape design embeds the Memorial within the existing landscape and allows the park’s current activities to remain. A subtle grass slope above the memorial entrance creates a distinctive experience within the park that will provide visitors with a new vantage point from which to view the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament.”
— Neil Porter, Founding Partner
“The bold and sensitive collaboration between architecture, landscape architecture, art and design from such a multi-faceted and award winning team truly captured our attention...also the seriousness with which the team approached the brief and the responsibility they saw they had: to carry the messages from this terrible history on to the generations to come.”
— Sarah Weir, Chief Executive of the Design Council
“This unique and immersive memorial is not just for Londoners, but for the whole UK. It will ensure the horrors of the Holocaust are never forgotten and will stand as a powerful reminder to future generations about the fragility of peace.”
— Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London
“The idea of ‘peeling’ the grassy land, and the tender, minimal intervention prior to the discovery of a dramatic cliff edge, forms the visceral experience of the Memorial. It’s not only a monument that one perceives from the outside, but also one that is ventured into.”
— Ron Arad, Ron Arad Architects
“The jury was unanimous...the team’s ability to use architecture to create an emotionally powerful experience, their understanding of the complexity of the Holocaust and their desire to create a living place as well as a respectful memorial to the past and its surroundings, will combine to create a new national landmark for generations to come.”
— Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation and the competition jury
“A stunning, inspiring, sobering concept for the UK’s new Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre. Constructed right in the heart of our democracy, it will be a lasting tribute both to those who died and to those who survived.”
— Sajid Javid, (Former) Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
“The outstanding winning concept will provide an entry point for a greater national understanding of the Holocaust and its contemporary relevance. This timely memorial will encourage and inspire peaceful coexistence and tolerance and will lead to a better appreciation of what can happen when hatred is allowed to develop unchecked.”
— Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis