As part of Dezeen's collaboration with Phaidon we are giving away five copies of In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials, by Spencer Bailey.
This competition has now closed
In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials is an exploration of the architecture and design of memorials built in the past 40 years.
Five readers will each win a hardback copy of the book, which has 240 pages and is illustrated with 200 photographs.
The book includes more than 60 memorials designed by architects including David Adjaye, Tadao Ando, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind, Snøhetta, and Peter Zumthor.
"Memorials hold a special position in the cultural memory of communities, cultures and nations," said Phaidon.
"They recognise hardship and sacrifice, as well as commemorate some of the most destructive and painful events in history."
Adjaye's 2013 Gwangju Pavilion and 2016 Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture memorials are included in the book.
"This book comes at a time of rethinking spatial storytelling," said Adjaye.
"The narrative of memorials is a device to project the many things facing people across the planet: nationhood, citizen rights, human rights, climate action. Memorial form is an important act of un-forgetting."
In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials was written by Spencer Bailey, who is editor-at-large of book publisher Phaidon. Bailey wrote the book – his first for Phaidon – having been influenced by a trauma in his early years.
In 1989 aged three years old, Bailey was on board a flight travelling to Chicago when an engine exploded and the plane crashed.
He survived the crash along with 182 other passengers, but 122 people died including Bailey's mother.
Details of the event as well as a photograph of Bailey being rescued, which went global and was later immortalised as a bronze statue, are included in the book's introduction.
Bailey also wrote first-person thematic essays on Hope, Strength, Grief, Loss, and Fear for the book.
Today at 5pm UK time (1pm EST) Bailey and Adjaye will take part in a virtual conversation, hosted by Phaidon and Dezeen.
The pair will be joined by Pentagram partner Michael Bierut, who oversaw the design and layout of the book, to discuss the shift in memorials from figurative to abstract designs.
They will address questions such as: what is the relevance of memorials in the 21st century and why does abstraction carry a power that figurative statues rarely, if ever, achieve?
There will also be a live audience Q&A at the end of the conversation.
Five readers will win a copy of In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials by Spencer Bailey. The book is also available to buy online.
Competition closes 25 November 2020. Terms and conditions apply. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email.
In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials talk will take place on 28 October at 5pm UK time. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
Partnership content
This competition is a partnership between Dezeen and Phaidon. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.