Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery
/// CASE STUDY — ARCHITECTURE

Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery

Year2022
ClientCity of Nantes
LocationNantes, France
RoleDesign Lead / Public Artist
CategoryArchitecture
DISCIPLINES

A memorial that descends visitors into history and resurfaces them into light — holding public grief, civic education, and ongoing reckoning in one continuous path.

/// CHALLENGE

Commissioned to memorialize a painful transnational history without flattening it into a single narrative. The working waterfront site demanded a form that could hold public grief, civic education, and ongoing reckoning simultaneously — accessible to thousands of annual visitors without becoming a passive monument.

/// SOLUTION

Designed a descending architectural path that physically enacts the descent into history, surfacing into light. Integrated engraved primary-source testimony with a structural form that reads as both monument and gathering space, allowing the city to inhabit its memory rather than observe it from a distance.

/// GALLERY — 3 FRAMES
Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery — 1Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery — 2Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery — 3
01 / 03
/// CONTACT

Let's
Connect.

Available for creative leadership, advisory, and the rare project that demands the full weight of an interdisciplinary practice.

DOCPORTFOLIO v1.0

Prepared as a candidacy brief for Creative Leader - Brand Design — Gensler. All works © Thom Long.

THOM LONG // CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
StudioEND OF FILE