Remembering Together Dundee Design

Dundee’s Co-created Community Covid Memorial is a free, permanent labyrinth and garden in the central area of Coldside in Dundee. This memorial, which was co-designed by over 200 Dundee residents, is an open, inclusive and colourful space for local communities to enjoy for many years to come.

The project team was led by UNESCO City of Design Dundee in partnership with Dundee City Council who continue to work together to maintain the garden and labyrinth.

Dundee Memorial Design render

Vinishree Verma and Ana Guerrero of Design Studio, Around Zero were the lead designers for Phase 1 of the Remembering Together: Co-creating Covid Community Memorials programme for Dundee. They worked with a number of community groups across the city and held public drop-in sessions to gather initial ideas and bring people together.

The design brief was very open, allowing Dundee’s community to develop their ideas across vast forms from permanent commemorative gardens, public or digital artworks, to theatre or music performance events, or events in parks, greenspaces or other types of public space.

The workshops began by allowing open and honest conversations around individual experiences of the pandemic. Intergenerational barriers were broken down by both young people and elderly participants listening to one another’s emotional experiences and understanding each other’s point of view. Families who took part also found this an insightful and reflective exercise after spending lockdown together under one roof.

These sessions continued into co-design workshops which led to the development of Dundee’s permanent garden and labyrinth. Labyrinths are known to reduce stress, aid mental health and community building. They can encourage meditation, mindfulness and connection. This idea of a memorial garden and labyrinth evolved from Dundee’s collective aim to transform negative associations of being trapped indoors during the lockdowns and highlight how nature and greenspace has helped mental wellbeing.

One of the important factors to come out of Dundee’s community co-creation, was that the memorial should be one central place where people could go to and reflect. The project team have achieved this through their design and the selected memorial location of Moncur Crescent in Dundee. It was important to the participating communities, that the location was accessible by bus routes, didn’t take away from existing greenspace or park areas, was open and unsheltered, and ideally located close to a playpark. Dundee’s Remembering Together project team have achieved this by redeveloping an unused site that acts as an extension to its neighbouring Moncur Crescent Playpark and has provided a new greenspace for people from across Dundee to enjoy. With a site secured, the project team were able to develop the memorial’s design.

Alongside Dundee’s Project Lead, Kirsten Wallace, Vinishree Verma continued the project’s community co-created programme into Phase Two to ensure all key values were embedded in the final design. The team worked with Dan Kingston of Old School Fabrications who designed Dundee’s memorial garden and labyrinth, utilising the process of biophilic design to connect people with nature to improve help improve health and wellbeing.

         Vinishree Verma and Dan Kingston at the memorial site

The memorial’s planting is perennial, low maintenance and climate resilient with a variety of heights. Sensory elements are very important, and planting will be considered for colour, texture, scent and symbolism.

In the centre of the garden are structures of waves, or fins. These protrude from the ground at different heights and angles, mirroring the natural movement of the planting and guiding people through the garden. The central fins are made from Corten Steel and also include seating. The fins have cut out shapes of birds, moving in a similar way to a murmuration, again mirroring the flowing natural waves, curves and shapes in the planting.

Close up of bench design render

The design symbolises the twists and turns of the pandemic; of coming together and being pulled apart, reflecting the isolation alongside the great sense of communities supporting each other.

Dundee’s aim was to create an optimistic, colourful and peaceful garden, where people can come to reflect as well as look towards the future, connect with nature and others. The team would love to see photographs of your visit to the Covid memorial. Please tag them @designdundee