Victorian Family Violence Memorial / Muir + Openwork

The memorial is located next to the Parliament Precinct in East Melbourne and has an outlook to Fitzroy Gardens. The design for the memorial is framed around five elemental design moves that change the way people behave on the site rather than changing the site character itself. These elements are recognizable civic gestures that acknowledge the requirements of a memorial to accommodate both the individual and the collective. The natural topography of the site is exploited while a reading of the formal aspects of the surrounding context are seen, considered, snudged. The sweeping arc folds into the land, providing spaces of procession, congregation, and reflection. A wall of thin black plate steel holds the memorial. Fragility and strength. Thinness. Robust. Singular. A large fold in the land is defined through an elevated platform for the congregation and the view beyond Fitzroy Gardens. A memorial wall folds into the landscape, supporting the land above. A room whose edge is defined by seating sits below the elm tree, orientating the body to the memorial wall and the view beyond to Fitzroy Gardens. New concrete decking slips away from the existing arced path, bringing people into a room through a moment of procession and compression bracketed by planting.