YAA Projects in collaboration with OMMX have been appointed by the Mayor of London as architects to work on The Wake by Khaleb Brooks, London’s Memorial to Victims of Transatlantic Slavery. Working closely with Brooks and community groups, we are designing the architectural setting for the nearly seven-metre-high bronze cowrie shell, outside the London Museum Docklands. The Wake represents the perseverance, prosperity and beauty rooted in Africa and African diasporic heritage.
The design of the architectural setting is community-led, weaving together storytelling, planting, and making workshops to ensure the memorial resonates with Londoners, particularly the city’s African and Caribbean communities.
The project aims to create a new public space for London – a space informed by diasporic and descendant communities, a place to reclaim histories and celebrate diasporic cultures, where joy and survival sit alongside grief.
Client: Greater London Authority
Collaborators: Khaleb Brooks & OMMX