Cork.

A very well balance project, conceptually, formally, theorically speaking; such an icon for the area, balanced with a great topography.

FAQs as unable to upload: 1.How do you foresee faith in the context of future? (will it diminish/sustain/alter/vanish/be more evident)  A foundation of utility is required for people to connect with their faith. If this baseline is not reflected upon, we feel that spiritualism and faith may be washed away with the pace of global enterprise and movement away from introverted thought.

2.What are the concepts behind your design ideology?  Shanghai is facing a burial crisis. The costs of land for burials is so high that most lower income families cannot afford space for even a headstone. The most popular burial method is by cremation and commonly, simply lighting a candle as a means of representation instead of a gravestone. This does not give a long lifespan for the process of grieving, and as a result makes everyone feel less significant within society without a permanent resting space. Shanghai is also the city at greatest risk of destruction in the world due to a 3-degree global temperature rise. It will create mass flooding and is projected to displace 17.5 million people. By creating a space that can manage flooding through utilising the remains of the dead, a permanent resting place is provided and the city is futureproofed. Additionally, a cathedral-like space to grieve, contemplate and pray is provided.

3. How does your design incorporate a sustainable method of burying/cremating the deceased?  Each person who dies will be cremated in our building. This is a relevant form of burial within most faiths and means that each dead body can take up a minimum amount of space (crucial in the dense city). Post cremation, the bodies ash is combined with a precious stone/rock/mineral of choice and deposited into an ash storage facility. Ash is collected into containers organised by month. The human ash and associated precious stones are mixed with cement free concrete, the precious stones become useful as aggregate, binding the concrete. Concrete 3d printers then construct the underground water management facility using the human ash infused concrete. Each storage container from one month of cremations contributes to one pillar supporting the underground water management facility, and reducing the pressure of water as it passes through. The use of coloured stones/crystals/minerals donated by each family offers the opportunity for the dead’s loved ones to identify their ash location within the pillars, and to create a sense of attachment.

4. How is your design scalable for growth and cater to the growing population?  For complete city-wide flood protection, more underground channels need to be created to effectively divert all of the incoming water. This provides localised places of burial through the city as a whole. However, the design concept is relevant beyond flood protection within Shanghai. Raised highways, bridges, aqueducts and many more typical concrete utilitarian structures within a dense city create no interaction with public beyond functionality. By using human ash-infused concrete to construct e.g. the pillars of a raised highway, the once dead space is activated into a space to grieve and contemplate. A public park would be created to facilitate this and activate these spaces within the city. As the population increases, the need for supporting infrastructure increases, and therefore available burial space increases. The city as a whole absorbs the density of burials within its supporting fabric.

5. What are the strategies adapted in your design for making it inclusive.  We have maximised inclusivity through our design by removing all barriers that might begin to define the space as for one religious type. It is an undefined space, that suggests little more than what it does; provides opportunity for burial and a resting space within the city. We use motifs that unite us all such as landscape and nature as the largest spaces for grieving, to offer consolation. Cremation was selected as the means of burial since it is relevant in most religions and allows the remains to be as small as possible, to create space for as many people as possible. We feel that our design is beyond serving religion; it is about making the remains of your body useful in the future proofing and protection of the wider city and society as a whole. Those who die in the city, are supporting the future growth of the city. Our proposal serves the wider city and community simultaneously and unbiasedly.

6. How does your design balance the density and quality of space for the visitors?  Due to the majority of the burial space being underground, and the scalable density absorbed through the city as a whole (see FAQ 4), all of the above ground space on site is for visitors. It is designed to maximise quality and to be enjoyed as a lower density plot within a highly dense city, providing a sense of relief and escape for residents. It is low density as a result of the wider urban vision. Therefore, most of the ground level space is a public park. This is needed within the dense neighbourhood and busy roads surrounding the site. The public park improves air quality and provides quieter contemplation space for those who have lost a loved one. Much of the height of the building is reserved as a car park facility, but with the projected decline of the automobile, these flexible spaces can easily be converted into other uses.

7. How is your design sustainable if it uses carbon intensive concrete? Concrete is the second most used material in the world after water, but is highly unsustainable. 8% of the worlds C02 emissions are due to concrete production. Cemfree concrete is an emerging alternative that can save up to 80% in embodied C02 compared to traditional concrete mix (using Portland cement). It achieves this by using fly ash as the binding agent to replace cement, a by-product of the steel production industry so is not energy intensive in its production. Even though it has 80% less C02 emissions, it has the same structural properties as traditional concrete, meaning it can have the same functions. Also, being ash based in its fundamental mix, it lends itself to bind with human ash more readily than traditional concrete

8. What spaces have been provided to allow for grieving Due to the unique process of burial, a range of spaces are provided for different stages of grieving. The family first bring the dead body into the visitor centre. The body is placed within the lift and it ascends to the crematorium for cremation preparation. The family ascend to the roof garden via the public lifts and enter the enclosed crematorium. This provides an intimate space for the most visceral stage of burial, the cremation. After the cremation, the roof garden provides raised views over the city, nature and animals to assist the grieving process and gives opportunity to scatter some of the ashes if desired. The ash storage facility (before infusion into concrete) occupies a full floor. This provides a gallery-like space to witness the raw ash and precious stones before they are required for concrete. The final space is the underground water management facility which can be accessed when the tides are low. This provides a cathedral-like space to search for loved one’s traces of rocks in the concrete.

9. How does the design prevent flooding Our adopted water management system is inspired by the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel in Tokyo. It is a system of heavy infrastructure that has greatly reduced flooding in the urban area, and has since promoted a wave of urbanisation within the previous flood plain. It uses a series of silos, each connected to a different secondary river. As each river fills up with the tide, it can overflow into the silos. Each silo is connected by an underground water channel which feeds all of the overflow water through a central management facility (equivalent to our proposal). This facility has many columns to reduce the pressure of flowing water before it is discharged into the large primary river. This river has the infrastructure to handle large volumes of water more than the secondary rivers.