INCENDIARY SANCTUARY IN EMILY'S MEMORY' AND 'HEALING OLD BONES AND FRESH WOUNDS'

by Alicia Montero

4th June 1913: a woman collides with a race horse. The protestor sacrifices her life, but no statue is erected. Instead memorials to fallen soldiers adorn the streets of London - a posthumous gentleman’s club, dripping in national sorrow. Meanwhile, south of the Thames, the bones of 15,000 medieval sex-workers and social outcasts lay underfoot. Their memory is buried deep, unmarked and unnamed in their final resting place. But this injustice is not consigned to the past. In 2020 sex crime, sexually transmitted infections and domestic abuse are rife in Southwark. Rising from the ashes, a holistic landscape now grows. Amidst the vegetation stands an inner-city women’s refuge and sexual health centre. They serve as a reparation, retaining traces of those forgotten. Emphasising inclusivity and anonymity, the porous architectural language explores physical and phenomenological transparency. Visitors can permeate the building as far as they feel comfortable, whilst accessing urgently needed services.