LONDON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- A London firm of architects Wednesday proposed that fire-ravaged Grenfell Tower should be transformed into a lasting memory of the 72 people who lost their lives.
JAA Studio has put forward speculative proposals to make use of the burned out shell that is all that remains of the tower.
In an essay published on its website, JAA predict the likely outcome of the 24-storey Grenfell Tower is to be demolished and replaced with new housing, with a civic-art-piece-style-memorial placed somewhere within a newly reconfigured public space.
In its own different perspective on the future of Grenfell, JAA says the most overwhelming image that sticks in the mind is that of the burnt-out husk of the building after the fire that has become the go-to image for the media time and time again.
"It is haunting, it is galling, and it shocks; as it should do. This feeling however cannot be allowed to fade over time."
Their proposal, Grenfell Tower: in Memoriam, will retain the existing tower's structure and encases it within a civic-scaled sarcophagus of 224 black concrete panels.
Visually, the tower would remain part of the London skyline, but differentiated from the similarly scaled blocks nearby by its lack of windows and unpunctured silhouette. At night, Flat 16 where the fire started, would be illuminated amongst the mass of shadow, a small gilded beacon, a quiet nightly narrator of the tragic event.
The rooftop would become a new 25th storey memorial roof garden, open to the sky.
"This project does not claim to be the answer to the difficult conditions found in the aftermath of Grenfell, but instead offers an alternative way of thinking about the site (and others similar) and its new-found sanctity through disaster."
"If we build over these individual spaces borne out of tragedy we will forget over time. And the city needs its scars; the city needs to remember."
The building has now been taken over by the government's Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)
The specialist journal Building Design (BD) said Wednesday a memorial for the victims of the June 14, 2017 disaster is one of the anticipated outcomes of an agreement between the MHCLG, Kensington & Chelsea council and survivors' and residents' groups that was signed earlier this year. A working group tasked with creating a memorial committee has now been established, but the committee itself has yet to be formed.
JAA co-director Alessio Cuozzo told BD online that a proposed roof garden would offer visitors a true quiet space above the hustle and bustle, a place to stop, reflect and breathe.
The bottom four floors would be renovated and extended for community uses and a permanent gallery dedicated to the disaster and its victims. All other floors would be closed off, serving no purpose other than to form the monument in the landscape.
Cuozzo added: "This project offers an alternative way of thinking about the site and its new-found sanctity through disaster."
The deadly fire on June 14, 2017 killed 72 people, and 70 others were injured.
