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Altab Ali Park in the High Street 2012 regenerating programme, London

Our ambition was to make accommodation for all users of the park without prioritising one over the other and to understand the site as a microcosm of the wider neighbourhood of this part of London; where historically many different cultural, religious and political influences have shaped the fabric and the people who live here.

The design is conceived as a matrix of the religious history of the site and of the secular, making a setting for the Shaheed Minar, a spatial trace of the realm of faith and an acknowledgment of the attachment to place, to landscape. This is intersected by a landscape setting for the Shaheed Minar monument and together these two principles create a place that is a commemorative park with a strong identity and which offers space for play and repose for all generations.

A 38m long bench makes a social space and gives views back across the park to the Shaheed Minar monument that is framed by a new landscape. Craved Portland stone pieces mark the fragmented footprint of previous churches including the white chapel, that gave its name to the area, these pieces are designed to enable play, for children and adults alike, one of the pieces is designed as a carum board and another as a “marble run”.

The transformation of the park into an outdoor museum through an archaeological dig with the Museum of London, that involved 500 school children and volunteers and revealed the C18th and C16th church remains and the creation of an Alpana for language Day with three Bangladeshi artists and students from Central St Martins. Both the artefacts from the dig and the Alpana designs are incorporated in the final scheme.

More info at http://www.muf.co.uk/portfolio/altab-ali-park, http://www.muf.co.uk/portfolio/2012

Katherine Clarke is the artistic half of the muf practice