CommonPlace: Bodies as Ground
Team
Name: Emma Stephens
Nationality: United States of America
Institution / Company: Pratt Institute
Name: Teresa Russo
Nationality: United States of America
Institution / Company: Pratt Institute
-FINALIST of FUTURE PUBLIC SPACE Competition
This modern cemetery is situated on a waterfront lot between a highrise hotel and a condominium complex in the densely populated Brickell neighborhood of South Miami. The wide stretch of seawall on the site will be dismantled; the lot will be broken into an archipelago of small islands to be used for mourning and recreation, surrounded by sunken reefs of calcified remains. The proposal hybridizes existing end-of-life typologies such as cemeteries, columbariums, mausoleums and morgues, together with outdoor, recreational public space. The facility will use processes such as human composting and aquamation to accelerate decay and physically reintegrate the body with nature. Concepts of ceremony and memorial will not be disregarded but left adaptable to incorporate varying kinds of grieving, religious and not, and be flexible to evolving views. The islands encourage recreation as well as memorialization, inviting the public into the space to normalize death and its processes. This recombination of life and death – of people and nature – can lead to a more integrated, and therefore more responsible and stewardly, understanding of the environment, emotional response to loss, and their relationship to one another.
#Public Buildings & Social Gatherings #Residue #Reintegration #non-monumental #Resilient Infrastructure
