Metropolis
Memorials Are for the Living
Eddie Blake and Gian Luca Amadei question how architecture can help us contemplate loss and memory in the age of COVID-19.
Courtesy John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
Memorials aren’t for the dead; they are for those still living. As episodes of remembrance, they also inform new memory, reversing the way we think about time: instead of the past forming the present, the act of memorialization shapes history and thus how we access the past. But how do we create memorials when those who are left behind agree on so little? For centuries, architects have had to engage with the contentious issue of who gets remembered, and we live in an era where narratives are more widely contested than ever.