ASHES & WATER. A columbarium in a pond….

Another amazing funeral design concept!

ASHES & WATER. a columbarium in a pond by il.balan from mexico

designer’s own words:

The typology of cemeteries until early XXI century have been developed in a horizontal way increasing by the time their footprint and creating “Cities for the Dead”, which usually are seen as distant sites for “rest” where people remember their loved ones. Far away from the daily life, grieving process begins with the burial where family and friends back home feeling as dead as the corpse they just bury.
With this in mind, we propose to shorten the distance between “cities of the dead” and the daily life by introducing underwater columbariums in public spaces like pond parks.
We believe that if people have a closer contact with death and its consequences, when the death of a loved one happens, they can have grieving processes more natural and effective. Life and death are two sides of the same coin.

Following common process of making concrete; sand, gravel, cement, water, air and ashes of the deceased are mixed to form a remembrance block that their loved ones insert in a wall with triangle niches after funeral services. This concrete block becomes part of the columbarium. Also gives people a new experience of remembrance and consciousness about death, rituals of cremation and the beginning of grieving process. The remembrance block weight is similar to that of a newborn, so, the circle of life and death is closed. Blocks contain only the name and year of birth of the deceased. If we die when people forget us, death is just a physical state of change.

The pond reflects the park: a metaphor of the other world (death).A typical pond in a park is drained. After the columbarium is builded, the pond is refilled.

videoThe columbarium now is a public space for consciousness about death and bereavement.Triangle shape of the columbarium gives visitors the sense of a long corridor (the trip of life).Human ashes become part of the building.Life and death: two sides of the same coin.

Poetree!

What about keeping it simple, yet also tying death back into nature’s cycle of renewal? That’s what French designer Margaux Ruyant does with Poetree, a funeral urn that infuses a poetic spirit into the mourning process. Poetree is a funeral urn that evolves over time, allowing loved ones to plant a tree in the ashes, while also providing a simple but elegant monument.

The Poetree is made out of a ceramic ring with the deceased’s details, plus a cork container and stopper. Relatives can place the deceased’s ashes in the urn and take it home, along with a boxwood tree sapling in a biodegradable pot. When they are ready, the cork stopper is removed, soil can be poured inside the urn, and the small tree may be planted in the ashes.

After giving the boxwood tree some time to grow, the urn can then be planted outside, where the cork container can biodegrade, leaving only the ceramic ring as a marker and a living, growing tree to commemorate those who have passed on. It’s a gorgeous idea that transforms the traditional ‘static’ view of death into something that is fluid and triumphantly hopeful.

Yarauvi, a necropolis in the Dead Sea

By Miró Rivera Architects
www.mirorivera.com

 

 

Approaching Yarauvi

Death and humans’ response to it have long held the power to bind cultures together and create places that transcend time and custom.

Our collective respect for the dead and where they are laid to rest reaches across cultures like few other human experiences. It is the commonality of this reverence that guides the creation of Yarauvi, a necropolis at the center of the Dead Sea.

The entrance to Yarauvi

Yarauvi is a place where any person regardless of nationality, race, religion, age or affluence can be laid to rest. By choosing this site as a final resting place, any citizen of the world can contribute to a growing monument to tolerance, reconciliation and unity.

 

Yarauvi on the Dead Sea

Where Do You Want Your Ashes to Go?

If you’ll be cremated, where do you want you ashes to go?

Cremation Urns, Den Bosch Cemetery, The Netherlands

Scattered in the ocean?

Coastside scattering

Scattered on land?

Scattering at a place that means something to you

Scattered in the air?

By plane

 Under the sea?

Jason Rew of Great Burial Reef with urn

The Burial Reef come to life…

The Living Reef

How ever and and where ever, think about it and let your wishes be clearly known…600,000 people are cremated in the US each year (25%)- and 60,000 sets of remains are never claimed– mostly because people don’t know what to do, and then “forget” about dealing with remains, procrastinate forever, and many more human reasons.

Fresh, Bold crematorium in Berlin

A beautiful cremation complex in the Baumschulenweg Cemetery in Berlin by Axel Schultes Architect

A cathedral for this century

Clean, inspiring, for human grief and passages…

Warm and human-scaled

Uplifting

Open, modern- and welcoming

This exists, and we can have it, too, if we think about it and ask for it.