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This article covers topics related to Architecture. That's where the 'Circle of Life' ends

Preparing the Cemeteries of tomorrow

That's where the 'Circle of Life' ends

5 min read·66 reads

UNI published Results under Architecture on Feb 24, 2020

Storyline

The story of birth and demise began to weave when humans started reading the stars and celestial bodies. Socio-cultural phenomena and language paved the path for religion and beliefs. Each religion had a new chronicle associated, that tapped our emotions. Infrastructures and spaces to perform these rituals were built, and held positions of great sanctity and significance in the society. Tombs, Pyramids, temples, all kinds of structures were constructed, and often formed the heart of a city or civilization.

As civilizations began to develop, and cultures started diluting, did all the public space re-equipped itself to the growing changes?

In the age of globalization where culture is getting homogenized, one can imagine a society where religions are not distinct anymore. Where society has moved ahead from rituals and developed new traditions. In such an era, birth and death - constituting the circle of life would also be celebrated in unconventional ways and rituals would be re-written.

In the coming decades, where our ageing population will complete their life cycle and we will face rising mortality rates - we still do not have enough infrastructure to support this purpose. The pace at which this unspoken need for the deceased is growing - will fall short for the demographic in consideration.

In times of accelerating urbanization and densification, the cemetery faces the challenge of keeping up its relevance as a public urban space. This condition is not only an issue of space but also of cultural identity that can be projected within its environment.

Brief

Unfuse launched an architectural challenge named "Circle of Life" to question the existing infrastructure of demise and death and how they are evolving for a sustainable tomorrow.

In a world where there is an unprecedented growth in population and cultural identities are being reshaped, there is a dire need to find a universal space to address all communities accordingly. The infrastructure of the coming decades has to be prepared for a sustainable future. With land being a limited resource now, a strategic and sensitive approach to design a resting place is necessary.

In times where horizontal growth of cities comes at a larger cost, one needs to examine other dimensions of growth. They need to be adaptable and to mutate in the urban setting, to serve a large mortal society.

How will architecture house this uncharted need of the cities of tomorrow? How can we make a common ground for all faiths/agnostic populations to practice their last rites in sustainable ways within our future urban environments?

The jury for the competition consisted of esteemed designers, professionals and academicians from around the world. The Lead Jurors for the competitions were as follows:

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Stefano Peluso, Owner, Stefano Peluso Architecture, Italy

Darius Reznek, Partner/Architect, Karres en Brands, Netherlands

Manuel Herrera, Partner/Architect, TALLER DIEZ 05, Mexico

Some of the Best of competition projects are as follows:

Winning Project: Epicurus

By: Xevier Silva, Manuel Villalaín González & Hazem Elshafei

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Description: “Death matters only to the extend that it makes us reflect on the value of life.”

Runner - Up: Praviek

By: Siyuan Meng, Qiurong Lai, Dai Li, Yangxi Xiangba & Jingsong Shi

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Description: Our design is the concrete Prawiek, which connects and woven the memory of the city with the memory of everyone. The building, which grows in an infinite upward spiral, is a vertical green space, a space for commemoration, and time of the whole city.

Runner - Up : Another Way to Accompany

By: 赵兮, 雪李, Yang Xinyu & Windy AO

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Description: We apply yarn structure to our design as an innovation. Through this design, we want to convey that : the death of our loved ones doesn't mean the end. They become the air we breathe, the scenery in our eyes, the shade in summer, the fragrant smell and the eternal power in our hearts. Don't be so sad. Their departure is just another way to stay with us.

Honorable Mention: Hongkou Cemetery: A City of the Dead

By: Kevin Khoury

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Description: The design seeks to respond to the ever-increasing need for more accessible burial places in Shanghai by exploring a balance between efficient density and quality of space.

Honorable Mention: Urban Cemetery

By: Annbelle Iszatt Team212020 02 25T11 39 000001

Description: As the urban contexte generates a difficulty to cut oneself off from the activity, the design is based on an introverted form. The exterior appearance reflect urbanity as the interior is a sort of protected parc. Two atmosphers, two landspaces. The moment of death is treated as a « passage ». All the design tends to reveal and to mark each temporality.

Honorable Mention: In Light We Return

By: Joe He, Liao He & Jienan Zhang

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Description: The project is to replace the traditional generic cemetery space with highly differentiated urban context, releasing the identical heavy stone-made tombs on the ground to various sensitive crystal-like prism in the sky, the tension between life and death, mortal and immortal, past and future has been reintegrated in increasing densified urban realms.

Honorable Mention: LEAVE A LIGHT ON

By: 蔡领航, Ziyao Wang & Cun Wu

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Description: Light illustrates human footprints in the dark night. This project creates a cemetery, which works as a public space for all free spirits in one of the world busiest city, Shanghai. By merging rural and urban spaces into light, the designated new cemetery provides a new relation between human and their habitat, as well as between the living and the dead.

Honorable Mention: Back To Earth

By: Xu Cindy & Xiaofan Wu

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Description: The idea of this project is to combine the burial process with the human body compost technology and create a landmark tower to present this process.

Honorable Mention: Parting in matter,Reunion in spirit

By: Mau Ziyong, 刘丛 & Mingjiye Guo

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Description: People bid farewell to the ashes in a clear spring, let the current lead people to experience parting, merge into a waterfall into the garden, and the memories of loved ones are presented through projection. The material follows the clear spring to return the soil, while the spirit remains here forever to comfort those who come.

People’s Choice: Is This The End?

By: Shayan Rakhshan

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Description: Humans always see cemeteries as a soulless and unbearable place. So they just go there to see their departed family or friends. But we can change this meaning of a cemetery to a plaza by changing a dead place to a dynamic and lively one.

Editor’s Choice: Good Death Best Park

By: Punchanit Nuchphongsai & Patcharin Saelai

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Description: A new cemetery in context of future. It contains all the dead bodies with an intention to solve the area problem and bring all the religion being together in the same place.

Editor’s Choice: YOU AND I WILL ALWAYS COLLIDE

By: Yuting Hu, Shihui Zu & Ximeng Luo

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Description: The postmodern society presents fragmented understanding of reality and of death. Emotions are highly personal, and the burying of loved ones, though often performed as a group practice, is simultaneously an intimate experience.

Editor’s Choice: UnderNature

By: Tao Hung Su

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Description: A contemporary urban cemetery coexisting with urban daily life. The fundamental change of the mechanism of cemetery makes the capacity of worshiping scalable and flexible. The architectural form and waterscape allow users with different purposes coexist without interrupting with each other.

Editor’s Choice: Dome Hall Cemetery

By: Zheng Yin

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Description: Inspired by the traditional Chinese life style and ancestor hall, I deconstruct the traditional building‘s space features and integrate them into a DOME HALL. It can accommodate a variety of worship activities, and become a special and solemn landscape of the urban area.

Organizer Choice Awards: LIGHT HOUSE

By: 旭悦潘

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