SpaceMatters’ was established when the team won the commission for designing the memorial at the ground zero of Bhopal Gas Tragedy. The project was radical in its vision. It reclaimed the abandoned, toxic industrial remains of the former Union Carbide factory as iconic monuments to the tragedy; while putting landscape ‘to work’ by developing in-situ, phytoremediation strategies for dealing with the contaminated soil and water. Here we were at odds with the two strong suits of architectural practice . The first is its ability to sanitise and make beautiful. This was at odds with the ruinous and rusted industrial architecture of the factory; proposed to be arrested in the state of decay as monuments to the tragedy. The second was the role of design to selectively make issues and objects visible. In this case, the persistent yet invisible contamination of soil and water was absent both from the project brief as well as from the architectural narratives received from across the country. Pollution is not an issue Indian design likes to grapple with; particularly when it comes with a political and social baggage. Sustainability here was choosing not to overlook the offensive (factory) and the invisible (pollution) while integrating them into the design; such that their presence offers new dimensions to engage with the challenges left behind by the tragedy. Today, 14 years into the project, industrial heritage and sustainable remediation have been two unconsidered spaces where architecture can bring value while adding a spatial dimension to their cultural and ecological sustainability. Through years of investigation, SpaceMatters has put together India’s first inventory of Industrial Heritage – a documentation of 400 sites across the sectors and states to populate this newly formed concept of Industrial Heritage. At Bhopal, we work with scientists, engineers, historians, artists and architects to devise a roadmap of remediation that will convert the urban void into a place of memory, contemplation and learning.