Kyu Sung Pai

Borrowing from James Young's reading of the Sinking Obelisk of Hamburg realised by Jochen and Esther Gerzin, this project proposes a Counter Monument. The political implications of grandiose monuments can manifest into an encouraged vandalisation, like in the Hamburg instance, which was conceived as a participatory and collective act, one that ultimately sunk the obelisk into the ground and made it disappear. This act of damaging was capable of generating a new collective memory, one that can alternatively identify a "true memorial" with an action or a process, and not with a finite architectural form.

Building upon these ideas of a Counter Monument, the tragedy my project intend to relate to is that of the Fire at Grenfell Tower, on 14th June 2017.

Choosing a simple and archaic building materials, like bricks, allows to put an emphasis on the self-building side of the construction process. The use of brick masonry implies to work closely together, making a hands-on social act. Bricks can be produced on site, so to incorporate their making as part of the overall construction process, which takes a different shape day by day: such gradual appearance was considered to be an important character of the tower, and was repeatedly brought up during the Memorial Commission meetings. Making visible the process of construction allows to openly communicate the progresses overtime, and no matter how slow such actions develop, they will contribute to the rise of an anti-Babel tower capable of bringing people together.

Bricks can be also produced on-site with untrained hands, incorporating it as part of the participatory creative process. For instance, I have created fire bricks, which are composed of plaster, sand, and steel wool reinforcements. These are incredibly easy to make, with opportunities for creative interventions at different moments in production. Most importantly, they are self-supportive as a construction material.

Furthermore, this experimentation on materials was an opportunity to address the notion of preservation, one of the many dilemmas of memorialising Grenfell. Currently, an inescapable paradox of conflicting opinions exists: whether to preserve the burnt tower as it is, and the walls are imbued with the spirits of the victims, as a beacon of warning towards those responsible; or to hide the terror away from the local residents, traumatised by this event. The terrazzo bricks have been created with construction rubble, an attempt to incorporate the remains of the old tower into this newly proposed construction. It is an embodiment of the negotiations, conversations, and compromises which the counter monument must represent.

There are four major phases in this process - Forum, Demolition, Construction, and Restoration. Within this process events are selected to be treated as a ceremonious festival. They have been selected on basis of the social nature of work, levels of professional skill required, and hazard assessment. Anybody who wishes to mourn and donate their time are openly invited.

The four panels presented are made with evocative intentions, for all four event to be happening at parallel.

These models explore the relationship between proposed interventions, and existing structure. The columns and the core remain structural, and new reinforced concrete slabs are introduced to support spandrel beams, replacing the warped slabs damaged from the heat.

The vertical circulation continues to develop around the core, and the same floor levels remain to be served by it. Occasionally, double height spaces open up exposing details of the existing cut slabs.

These models and drawing illustrates the core idea of the project. The monumental action consists of a bottom up process: as the slabs are demolished, new structurally stable slabs are put in place, using local tools that are moved from floor to floor. Ultimately, this collective intervention will slowly take over the burnt tower.