Memorial

A diploma thesis at the University of Strathclyde, confronting Glasgow's historical ties to transatlantic slavery and asking how that legacy might be made visible in the city. The answer is a memorial on the River Clyde.

Glasgow's wealth was built in large part on the tobacco and sugar trades, and on the labour of enslaved people; ships tied to that trade sailed the Clyde itself. The thesis began by mapping those ties across the present-day city, then drew them together into a single place on the river.

You experience the memorial by moving through it: a tight, constricted passage that takes you across the water, lit only by light reflected off the river's surface. The form recalls the hull of a slave ship - the vessels that carried people from Africa in appalling conditions - so that, for a few minutes, the visitor walks through the same kind of dark, cramped space.

Location

Glasgow / UK

School

University of Strathclyde

Role

Diploma thesis (author)

Status

Academic project