SOCIAL MEDIA ZEITGEIST

 

On 7 May 2025, the UK Government announced the five shortlisted teams in the competition to design the Queen Elizabeth II National Memorial. While public interest is understandably focused on the visual drama of the proposals, for architecture and built environment professionals, the more significant story may lie in how the competition was structured. In an age where major commissions increasingly face scrutiny around fairness, transparency and deliverability, this project offers a measured, process-led approach to national design procurement.

Setting the Stage: Process First, Images Later
The memorial, planned for a prominent site in St James’s Park near The Mall and Marlborough Gate, is intended to be a space of public engagement and reflection. But unlike many high-profile commissions, this one has been engineered as a textbook example of structured design management.

Spearheaded by the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee (QEMC) and managed by the Cabinet Office, the competition was delivered by Malcolm Reading Consultants under the UK’s Public Contracts Regulations 2015 using the Restricted Procedure.

The two-stage format prioritised team composition, track record and methodology in the first instance, before inviting five teams to develop full design proposals in Stage Two.

Beedier published the qualifying competition details at the beginning of the year – so there was not excuse for missing out on the deadline! Each shortlisted team was awarded a £50,000 honorarium—supporting not only visual concepting but stakeholder engagement, cost modelling, and early technical resolution.

The Brief: National in Scope, Local in Impact
The design brief for the Queen Elizabeth II National Memorial was as ambitious as it was nuanced – more urban framework than symbolic gesture. Teams were tasked with developing a holistic masterplan that not only commemorated the person, but did so through integrated placemaking, contemporary landscaping and inclusive public engagement.

The brief called for “a landmark memorial of outstanding aesthetic quality,” with space for both collective celebration and quiet individual reflection.

A strong emphasis was placed on sensitivity to context—especially the legacy of John Nash’s landscape in St James’s Park—and the memorial’s relationship to existing royal monuments. Practical considerations were equally foregrounded: accessibility, biodiversity, park rhythms, visitor safety, and low-maintenance durability. The design needed to resonate across generations, reflect sustainable values, and incorporate immersive or interpretative elements – all while demonstrating clarity around cost and delivery. In short, it was a design challenge that asked not only for creativity, but for design intelligence grounded in civic realism.

The Shortlist: Five Teams, Five Process-Focused Narratives
What distinguishes the shortlisted schemes is less their stylistic direction, and more the methodologies behind them. These are proposals grounded in site analysis, collaborative authorship and process-led design thinking.

 

Foster + Partners with Yinka Shonibare and Michel Desvigne Paysagiste
This team combines high-profile architecture with conceptual art and landscape pedigree. Their scheme references John Nash’s original masterplan for the park and introduces a series of garden spaces linked by a tessellated path. A new unity bridge, voice installations and digital experiences suggest a layered approach to place-making. The proposal feels calibrated for programme and public use as much as for ceremony.

Heatherwick Studio with Halima Cassell, MRG Studio, Webb Yates and Arup
This entry leans heavily into visual symbolism, with 70 sculptural stepping stones leading to a limestone figure under an abstracted floral canopy. The collaborative team includes sculptors, engineers and fabricators known for delivering complex public realm installations, suggesting confidence in realising unconventional geometries. The spatial language reads more as immersive sculpture than architecture, raising questions about how it integrates with daily park usage.

J&L Gibbons with Michael Levine RDI, William Matthews Associates, Structure Workshop and Arup
Their proposal presents a quietly technical response to landscape and site topography. A stone bridge integrates water flow into the lake, creating a soundscape and inviting informal interaction. Emphasis is placed on phenomenological experience—light, reflection, canopy, glade—framing the site as a contemporary parkland intervention rather than a formal memorial. The team’s background in regenerative landscape work is evident throughout.

Tom Stuart-Smith with Jamie Fobert Architects, Adam Lowe (Factum Arte) and Structure Workshop
This concept pivots around the full-scale casting of a mature oak tree, positioned on a plinth in the lake. A serpentine path interweaves with sculptural details drawn from the Queen’s life, though the greater narrative is ecological. Stuart-Smith’s reputation for crafting layered planting schemes gives weight to the sensory aspects, while the inclusion of Factum Arte suggests attention to material precision and heritage documentation.

WilkinsonEyre with Lisa Vandy and Fiona Clark, Andy Sturgeon Design, Atelier One and Hilson Moran
This proposal represents the most integrated architectural entry. A new bridge and sculptural elements are carefully aligned with broader circulation strategies within the park. The team combines expertise in infrastructure, M&E engineering, and contemporary horticulture, hinting at a balanced delivery strategy. Their approach appears less driven by symbolic narrative and more by long-term spatial coherence and adaptability.

The memorial is scheduled for completion in April 2026, aligning with what would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s centenary. But the path from shortlist to delivery has been shaped to accommodate iterative development and public input. Public exhibitions, focus groups, and stakeholder dialogues form part of the assessment phase, echoing best practice in civic engagement.

 

While the winning scheme will inevitably carry symbolic weight, it will also need to pass through planning, conservation and implementation filters, demonstrating how complex commissions can support design quality while upholding financial discipline, community engagement and programme certainty. Perhaps this is one that definitely cannot be seen to go wrong.

 

For a full selection of released images, videos, and project submission boards from the shortlisted teams, visit the Malcom Reading competition website. Beedier will continue to track the outcome of the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial competition and its implications for design-led procurement across the public realm.