Concept Design
To most accurately critique the archive of the indies, based in Seville, for providing a contextless form of information in a serious and rigid air, the process of archiving was studied.
A fundamental method of provenance is key to providing what little context is available. This is the process of one leaving their mark on the collection presented, whether through the arrangement of the presentation or editing what is shown in the archive.
Multiple studies throughout the processes of context analysis lent themselves to representing ideas found in Calvino’s essays on exactitude, particularly around the structural beauty of the crystal, and the chaotic beauty of the flame, with the city lying between the two.
These points make up the key concept of the design, criticising the contextless archive through a fun and more humourful manor, and allowing a sense of provenance and temporality for the everyday person.
Death is not the end but a contribution that gives energy to life. This project focuses philosophically on reviving the relationship between us and our world, whilst addressing the unsustainable nature of the UK’s current burial system. The chosen site is on the South Bank in London where a river of life contrasts against the stark nature of the design; A vertical cemetery, using new technology that transforms a body into soil in 30 days. Through contrasts, the aim is to normalise against the western nature of death being a taboo. One of the oldest depictions of what happens after life is the Underworld from the Ancient Greek culture. Throughout the detailed landscape I drew parallels to grief mechanisms and created a sensitivity in my design to aid the grievance process. A celebration of life and memorialisation is encapsulated through several atria which directly contrast quiet reflection rooms, all stemming from a spine of ‘Recomposition’ chambers. A constant process that feeds warmth back through the building because of exothermic decay.
Death brings soil, and soil brings life through an elysian seasonal forest running underneath the floating cemetery and elongating through the atria as terrariums made from loved ones.