As debates over history and memory are increasingly polarized, a new report offers a practical roadmap and a call-to-action for designers to help reshape public space as a more just, inclusive, and participatory commons.
In July, MASS Design Group published the 2024 Public Memory and Memorials Lab (PMML) Convening Report, following a November gathering in Boston. The event brought together more than 90 participants from over 50 organizations, including artists, architects, historians, educators, and community leaders to cultivate trust and spark collaboration for projects rooted in public memory and memorialization.
The resulting report calls for a shift away from static monuments that preserve dominant narratives and instead promote community-led memorials rooted in lived experience, shared histories, and collective healing.
The report outlines three guiding principles: Build together through inclusive partnerships, speak bravely by confronting difficult histories, and design with care by centering emotional well-being throughout the process. The approach encourages architects to collaborate across disciplines and share power with those most affected by the stories being told.
It highlights 25 in-progress projects—ranging from a returned Lipan Apache cemetery in Texas to a peace initiative in Rwanda—with a combined funding need of over $85 million. MASS calls on funders and policymakers to help bring these efforts into the public realm.
“If justice is what love looks like in public, and the public realm is where we learn about our collective life,” one participant reflected, “then we need not only monuments and memorials but to activate, revitalize, and honor in ways that build new collective capacities.”
Read the full report here.
