Commission unveils Grenfell Tower Memorial design team shortlist

The Memorial Commission received strong applications from no fewer than 28 multi-disciplinary design teams featuring architects, landscape architects, community engagement specialists and other disciplines. A robust evaluation and moderation process was undertaken of those applicants to reach a shortlist that should have the right skills, capability and awareness of the Grenfell tragedy.

Significant due diligence checks were also carried out to make sure that any team, organisation or individual potentially working on the Grenfell Tower Memorial does not bear any potential responsibility for the tragedy.

The five shortlisted design teams are (in alphabetical order):

*Curl La Tourelle + Head Architecture

*Freehaus

*George King Architects x Grow to Know

*New South

*Office Sian

This is a hugely significant step forward in the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission’s journey to create a bold, fitting and lasting memorial to remember the 72 victims who lost their lives in – and those whose lives were forever changed by – the devastating Grenfell Tower fire of June 2017.

Over the next six months, the shortlisted teams will be asked to demonstrate their relevant, professional and specialist expertise including architecture, landscape architecture and structural and mechanical engineering. Teams must also present their strong experience of working collaboratively with communities.

With direct input from the Grenfell community, the final team is expected to be selected and announced this summer. It’s anticipated that the Grenfell Tower Memorial design should be sufficiently developed, in partnership with the community, to allow for a planning application in late 2026.

Selection process

The Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission launched its international design team selection process last July and called on the design industry to put forward its best, most innovative and thoughtful teams. This followed on from the Memorial Commission’s publication, in November 2023, of its second report detailing the Grenfell community's wishes for a permanent Grenfell Tower Memorial. The report also called on the Government to honour its earlier commitments and fulfil its moral duty to deliver all 16 of the Memorial Commission’s recommendations.

The Memorial Commission has written to the bereaved families, survivors and the immediate community living close to Grenfell Tower to communicate the design team shortlist to them. There will also be opportunities for those groups to meet and share their views on the shortlisted teams in the coming months.

The Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission’s ten community representatives have jointly stated: “Having a shortlist of teams brings us another step closer to turning the Grenfell community’s memorial vision into a physical reality.

Through this process, we intend to identify and appoint a specialist and worthy design team. One that has proven experience of working on sensitive and community-focused projects and can leave no doubt in our minds about the integrity with which they will approach the vital task of designing a beautiful and fitting future memorial. Our 72 loved ones, and our community, deserve nothing less.”

Profound tribute

Thelma Stober and Lord Paul Boateng, co-chairs of the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission, commented: “We have given our word, right from the outset, that the voices of the entire Grenfell community must take priority in the memorial decision-making process, both now and in the future.”

Stober and Boateng continued: “We hope that the bereaved families, survivors and those living close to Grenfell Tower will feel able to participate in the selection of a design team and, later on, contribute towards the co-design of the Grenfell Tower Memorial in whichever way feels appropriate and meaningful for them. This will ensure that the final design embodies a profound tribute to the 72 lives lost and provides a lasting place for loved ones to pay their respects, mourn and feel connected to their memories.”

Jane Duncan OBE PPRIBA, chair of the RIBA’s Fire Safety Expert Advisory Group since 2017, observed: “It has been a huge honour to work with the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission and the RIBA on the international search for an outstanding multi-disciplinary design team for the Grenfell Tower Memorial. The number and quality of the initial entries and the compassion, thoughtfulness and clarity of the entrants’ desire to undertake this important community-led commission have amazed the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission and the other evaluators.”

Duncan concluded: “As we commence the second phase of the design team selection process, I’m excited to meet the teams and I have every confidence that one will soon be demonstrating their exemplar design, management and skills to both local and international communities.”

*Further information is available online at grenfelltowermemorial.co.uk/design