Overview
The Queen Elizabeth II National Memorial Masterplan Design Competition was an open search for an exceptionally dedicated and inspired multidisciplinary team to create a landmark memorial masterplan of outstanding aesthetic quality that celebrates and honours Queen Elizabeth II.
The competition was directed by the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee (QEMC) and the Cabinet Office, a ministerial department of the United Kingdom Government.
The Committee Chair, Lord Janvrin, who was Queen Elizabeth II’s former Private Secretary, explains:
‘Over her 70-year reign – the longest of any British monarch – the late Queen was an exemplary and constant presence in the United Kingdom, the Realms, and the Commonwealth.
She was part of our national identity and helped to define our values, she gave us a sense of continuity through times of great change, she was integral to recognising achievement and she exemplified service and duty, strengthened by faith and leavened by pragmatism, optimism and humour.
The masterplan design needs to seek inspiration from all this. The memorial must be – simply – a beautiful place, a place to visit with friends, a place to gather, to enjoy, and to reflect on an extraordinary life.’
Envisaged as a celebration of Elizabeth II as well as a place of reflection, the memorial project needs to tell the story of a long reign and be beautiful, inclusive and sustainable. The site traverses London’s Grade I listed St James’s Park from Marlborough Gate on The Mall covering land surrounding the pathway to, and including, the Blue Bridge and across to Birdcage Walk.
The challenge and opportunity could hardly be more significant: the project will create a new national landmark.