What We Don’t Like

• We are critical of the choice of site. If the purpose of the memorial is to convey an apology from Jersey and GoJ, then we feel The Royal Square is the most appropriate site, as it is the forecourt to the heart of Government.
• We do not consider the budget of £200,000 is commensurate with the scale of “apology” that the memorial is intended to convey.
• The ‘tick-box’ approach to the delivery of the memorial.
• That the whole process was open to off-Island designers with no connection or understanding of Jersey.

What We Think

• Only by weighing the ‘sense of shame’, can the appropriate scale of ‘apology’ be derived, moving forward.
• The urban impact and significance in the Weighbridge, based on the brief, lacks ambition and will result in a piece of sculpture that is ‘out of sight’ and therefore ‘out of mind’.

What We Propose

• An abstract representation of abuse victims, where the abuser dominates the abused in scale, but gradually this is reversed.
• Both abuser and victim form a series of abstracted totems, collectively creating a dynamic urban intervention, splitting the Weighbridge in half.
• From despair to hope; industrial rusted steel and glass; glinting in the sun during the day and forming beacons of light at night time.
• Community involvement in inscribing words into the floor panels, will add strands of meaning and personal memories into the piece.

What We Conclude

Visually, our proposals are intended to be ‘a bone in the throat of Jersey’ ie. a thought-provoking urban gesture in one, immediate sense, but in another they are intended to convey dignity and gravitas, and more intimate messaging.

As part of the ‘Trees We Love’ Competition for the 2019 Rubis Calendar Mike entered with his photo of a tree at Chemin du Moulin and was lucky enough to make the April ‘pin-up’.

RIBA International Competition. The Footbridge Design Ideas Competition sought new ideas to re-affirm Network Rail’s commitment to good design across the nation, and the delivery of excellent ordinary. Our concept references the aspiration for ordinary excellence and proposes an understated solution which is engineering-inspired, echoing the industrial heritage of Britain’s railways, but also poetic and subtle…. celebrating ‘beauty in everyday-life’.

Conceptual facade sketches for Ed Le Quesne House, exploring layered brick colonnades and step-downs/insets in streetscape massing

Conceptual sketches for traditional rural housing in Jersey

At the time 44 Esplanade, also known as Ogier’s was at the time Jersey’s largest, greenest office development with the first-ever BREEAM rating of Very Good.

Thought to be the oldest established hotel in St. Helier our concept was to refurbish and restore the original building but contrast it with an architecturally very modern new extension, separated by a dramatic 5-storey glass atrium.