The Grounds of Remembrance 
by artist Lisa Rapport
and PLANT Architect
Historic Downtown Dublin

Grounds of Remembrance was designed by Lisa Rapoport and PLANT Architects from Toronto Canada to provide a place to honor those who have served and sacrificed themselves for our country. Grounds of Remembrance includes a public gathering place, a bronze loggia, a memory wall where visitors can leave notes of appreciation, a grove of 25 sycamore trees and a walkway paved with dedication stones etched with tributes and messages of gratitude.

 

Lisa reflects, “We felt that a single structure - a monument if you will - was not appropriate for this project as the project as described by the committee does not commemorate a specific event, place or people. Instead, it should be a place which addresses the inclusiveness of the wider community - veterans, their families and including the families of soldiers that are not from Dublin. Dublin contributed soldiers to every war, but because it was so tiny for so long, fewer than 200 veterans are buried here, but the ancestral impact on the population is comparatively large.

 

As these grounds represent people who may have deep roots in Dublin, those recently arrived, and those that are here for only a short time - the project promotes the idea of daily ritual for all and choreographs that journey through the grounds with a sculptural object that guides that journey. A place that is habitually walked and touched is a place that begins to knit its way into everyone's lives - when people serve, they represent their whole community in that service - touch is what connects us as people…as a community.

 

We see this intimacy with the grounds as also necessary for providing a restorative and contemplative function to cope with one’s personal intimate losses, and a sense of stewardship - a care of the land that is only possible with a deep knowledge of it. Being intimately familiar is also feeling tied to it.”

 

The PLANT Architect Inc. developed the concept for Grounds of Remembrance based on four guiding principles to establish GROUNDS themselves:

 

• That the land as a whole needs to be demarcated in some way so that it is comprehensible as an entity - a whole
   

• That the project should be visible and not wall off the site like the cemetery to invite entry and curiosity by those that do not have an obvious vested interest
   

• That the cemetery - spatially and texturally - will remain a strong dominant form in the project, AND
   

• That the ritual of use will both reveal the land and its NEW meaning, and that it requires people to participate in order to fulfill its meaning - again, remembrance stems from ritual, both ceremonial and everyday experience

 

The project highlighted the interconnectedness of architecture and landscape, openness and enclosure, unaffected beauty, color and texture, material and light, as all as the possibility of extracting history and memory in inventive and poetic ways.