A team of students from the AA comprised of: Sensy Mania, Shaha Raphael, Simonpietro Salini and Sheng-Chin Wu have been shortlisted in the 'Souls of Beirut' design competition, organised by +FUTURE. The competition sought proposals for a memorial that would honour the victims of the explosion and send a message of hope for the future. The AA students' proposal 'Hearts of Stitched Curtains' proposed a memorial that incorporated fabric from homes around the city damaged in the blast.

"The project proposes Hearts of stitched curtains collected after the explosion from each neighbourhood as a symbol of hope and rebirth. Beirut is a city built from its ashes. With a heavy history of destruction and reconstruction, the city has always rejected the memorialisation of its past struggles and instead strives to move forward with hope. The project seeks to challenge the notion of the memorial as more than a place for mourning. We are proposing a network of community-led temporary structures that will also serve as gathering grounds for healing the people and the built environment. The Hearts are built from lightweight scaffolding and surviving curtains stitched together to form a 60-metre long membrane surrounding the circular pathways. The scars recount the role of the curtain as the attenuator of bodily damage at the moment of the explosion. Torn, scattered, forgotten, the curtains are joined together to form a healing shroud.

As a memorial, the Heart invites visitors to form a solemn procession along a circular path lined with flowers, notes and letters of remembrance. As a space for the people, the Heart provides shelter for the distribution of food, medicine and emergency aid during the recovery. As a space for the city, the Heart organises activities around the rebuilding and repairing of the sites affected by the explosion, from the sorting of rubble to erecting new homes.

The project seeks to provide a framework for the volunteering process. The circular space becomes a beacon for the healing activities that until now informally took place in leftover areas of the city; a home for the volunteers within which healing becomes a collective and proactive process. The stitching of the curtains is envisioned as an act to unite neighbours and foster a sense of community. The raising of the large curtain is a ceremonial reminder of the fight to overcome difficulty. As Beirut heals from the explosion, the scaffolding is gradually taken down and the curtain is carefully folded, kept as a relic to remember not just the event, but also the incredible collective efforts behind the recovery."