Explorations into the design of a Sentient Building

The intervention at St Margarets looks at creating a sentient monument which merges the themes of sanctuary and campanology through the notion of ritual and its ability to activate and reactivate meaning and memory. It provides sanctuary to the Society of Change Ringers at St Margaret’s church in Westminster, who have occupied the space since the early 1890’s.

A ringing bell holds the key to memories. Not just our own past, but everyone’s. We associate bell’s with providing us with a structure to our lives, they ring in time, peace, death and memory. The idea that they help us remember or re-remember an event, brings forward a thought: can the sound of a ringing bell be an unintentional monument? And if so, can a building designed to ring and be heard, be a sentient monument?