The Ordinary Nature of Cemeteries by Zhuofu Cai

The ordinary nature of cemeteries

Student name: Zhuofu Cai

Student number: s3738671

Teacher’s names: Muhammad Yazid bin Ninsalam

Submission date: 02/JUN/2019

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ABSTRACT Melbourne, one of Australia's economic and cultural centers, is the capital of Victoria and has a considerable city size and large population. The population of Melbourne is gradually increasing with the development of the city, but with it, more and more people are continually aging and facing death. As the capital city of Victoria, Australia, Melbourne has the second largest population in Australia. But Melbourne's existing cemetery is saturated, so Melbourne is facing the cemetery planning issues in 2

the development of the city.

There are three main problems to the planning of cemeteries.

Firstly, in Melbourne, if the cemetery will be replaced or destroyed, what impact will it have on Melbourne?

Secondly, if the cemeteries are full and people need new land to bury the dead, what aspects are important for the new cemetery? (historical, geographical and so on) Thirdly, is there a possibility that every place can become a cemetery?

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1. INTRODUCTION According to Hogben and O’Callaghan (2015), Landscapes constructed to honor the memory of the dead contain some of the most enduring edifices across cultures. Monuments and commemoration practices in Australia and New Zealand derive from the practices of Western Europe, particularly the cemetery reforms of eighteenth-century Paris. Such reforms responded to a growing distaste for the spectacle of death that had resulted from burial places being located in crowded cities. This growing social revulsion, strengthened by the fear of contagion resulting from the plague, led to the establishment of cemeteries that were built to perpetuate the memory of the dead. These new cemeteries consisted of permanent mausoleums and graves, often initially laid out in gardens and park-like surrounds.

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2. FINDINGS

Graph 1, The lineage map of aspects that impact the cemetery 5

Generally, the construction of the cemetery depends on several important reasons. The first is the geographical location of the cemetery, the second is the population of the cemetery and the carrying capacity of the cemetery and the local role of the cemetery. The impact of the cemetery.

For the geographic location of the cemetery, the distance between the house around the cemetery, the distance between the cemetery and the city center, and the geographic information of the potential cemetery available is a primary consideration.

Second, the city's population is also one of the key factors in determining the address and size of the cemetery. We should consider information such as Melbourne's population growth rate, birth rate, and mortality rate. Finally, if we need to combine the cemetery with other functions, we need to consider the same points of the cemetery and other functional areas. For example, they are all public areas, they all have a certain greening effect and the ability to provide part of the traffic. Finally, we need to pay attention to the information of the cemetery throughout the process, such as the budget for building the cemetery, the time it takes, the carrying capacity of the cemetery, and the shape of the cemetery in the city.

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2.1 FACTORS AFFECTING THE LOCATION OF THE CEMETERY

Graph 2, The location of Melbourne general cemetery 7

Source: Photography 8

Source: Photography 9

The Melbourne General Cemetery is located about 3 km north of the city of Melbourne. It has various buildings such as the Memorial Church and can carry a large number of graves.

According to graph 2, Melbourne's general cemetery needs to be built not far from the city, but it can't be too close to the city, because of the closer to the city center, the greater the population density, which means that people in the city center need more cemetery than the suburbs. So the cemetery is usually between the city center and the main residential area. However, if too many cemeteries are built between the city center and the suburbs of the city, it will greatly affect the life of the urban residents.

Because the cemetery needs a very large area, the value of the houses around the cemetery will decrease. If the cemetery is built far away from the center of the city, it will not solve the burial problem of the dead people.

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Graph 3, The footpaths map of Melbourne 11

Source: Photography 12

In Melbourne, Melbourne's general cemetery has a large number of roads around it, making it an element of open space in a city, and it also has a nature similar to a park. In the cemetery, there is a circular main road that can pass cars and bicycles, and there are numerous sidewalks. These together form the transportation system of the cemetery, so that the traffic of the cemetery is linked to the urban traffic and will not become an isolated plot.

The main function of the cemetery is to bury the dead, so the population information of a region is very important for the planning of the cemetery. Melbourne's policy determines that the population density of Melbourne City is much larger than the population of Melbourne's suburbs, so the Melbourne city will have a greater demand for burial. The following proves this by analyzing the population density of the city.

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Graph 4, Height analysis of Melbourne's urban and suburban areas 14

The Melbourne city's architectural height is much larger than the Melbourne suburbs, which means that the Melbourne city has more people in the same footprint, and the Melbourne city houses are mainly apartments, while the Melbourne suburbs are housed. Lord, this means increasing the gap between Melbourne's city and suburbs.

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Graph 5, The heat map of major development in Melbourne

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Graph 6, The heat map of free supports in Melbourne

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According to the graph 5 and graph 6, Melbourne's major cities are built in Melbourne city and south bank and surrounding areas, so the population of Melbourne's city center will continue to rise in the future, but there are no idle plots in the city center, so it is necessary to find a region where the surrounding population is rising fast. As the primary goal of the construction of a new cemetery.

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Graph 7, The residential population of Melbourne in 2004 19

Graph 8, The residential population of Melbourne in 2015 20

According to graph 7 and graph 8, the western part of Melbourne has become the fastest growing region in the surrounding area of Melbourne. This is because of the large number of immigrants and investors entering the country, making the economy and population of the western part of Melbourne show significant growth, and the western part of Melbourne has good Traffic conditions have also become an important condition for population growth. Due to the lack of development in many parts of Melbourne's western region, coupled with the large population of newcomers, the western part of Melbourne will be the primary consideration for the site selection of Melbourne's cemeteries for the next few decades., In such a temporal zoning scenario, a community plan might identify a private nonprofit cemetery, such as one run by a religious organization, for expansion into presently undeveloped areas. The municipality could acquire from the religious organization a long-term lease or easement on the expansion area to construct and operate athletic fields during the period when it will not be needed.

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2.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RECORD ABOUT THE CEMETERY According to Yu(2014), the ultimate purpose of cemetery reform is to reduce and remove the dependence of bodies and ashes on lands. But according to the investigation, more than 57% people still prefer the traditional burial, about 11%, 11 % and 7 % people would choose the tree burial, burial at sea and flower burial, respectively. Only about 2% choose the ash wall while nobody chooses the ash tower1131. Therefore, we should take into account the practical conditions and make full use of the cemetery lands.

If the existing cemetery is destroyed or replaced, either transform the other space in the city into a cemetery or combine the cemetery with other plots. But in the process of gradually replacing the cemetery, there is a very important impact on the city that is the forgotten cemetery. Some cemeteries have been damaged over time, and they have been buried below the land. Nowadays, it is often the case that the graves are dug out during land development, which means that the planning and recording of modern graves are very important.

According to Anonymous (2013), The most difficult problem for local planners in developing an accurate burial inventory is finding forgotten burial grounds, which are sometimes not even known to those who live on the land where remains are interred.

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To say that there is a significant problem of lost places of burial is to understate the impact of recent revelations of lost bodies and desecrated grave sites. Americans have a long history of burying their dead on their own properties, and, over time in a highly mobile society, these gravesites have been neglected, forgotten, and sometimes damaged - accidentally or intentionally.

However, if every grave is recorded and all the grave information is collected, it can avoid the contradiction with the cemetery during urban development. According to Anonymous (2013), one of the most significant problems in inventorying burial sites is the lack of good recordkeeping. It is important that planners learn to properly archive cemetery information using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Not only will this information be useful in planning for future cemeteries, but it can permanently record the location of otherwise unmarked gravesites. As noted later in Chapter 4, the trend toward green burials with unmarked gravesites suggests certain challenges in finding gravesites in the future. Accurate GIS information makes finding gravesites possible, even where there are no obvious markers.

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Figure 1, The index system for assessing the intensive use of multi-functional cemeteries Source: Li, Mingping, and Zhongxiang Yu, 2014,

‘Study on the Intensive Use of Rural Cemetery Lands from the Perspective of

Multiple Functions’, Vol.6，pp.51.

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Figure 2, The weights of the index for evaluating the intensive use of multi-functional cemeteries Source: Source: Li, Mingping, and Zhongxiang Yu, 2014,

‘Study on the Intensive Use of Rural Cemetery Lands from the

Perspective of Multiple Functions’, Vol.6，pp.51.

In the record of the cemetery information, not only the location information of the cemetery is recorded, but also various analysis data is also very important information for urban planning.

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Among them, for example, the record of greening rate represents the cemetery not only as a space for burying the dead but also as a landscape in the role of urban parks and public spaces.

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Graph 9, The greening of Melbourne city 27

Graph 10, The greening of Melbourne city 28

According to the graph 9 and graph 10, in Melbourne, although the cemetery does not have the same greening rate as the city park, it also has a part of the greening within its entire range. Therefore, the cemetery actually carries the role of urban greening, but the greening rate of the cemetery is not as good as that of the urban park, and it also represents the more open space of the cemetery.

The government also has a very detailed record of the names and numbers of the deceased in the cemetery, so these can provide the city planner with a lot of important information, such as when the cemetery will no longer carry more dead in the future, and The cost of the cemetery, people are more inclined to choose which price and form of cemetery.

2.3 THE POSSIBILITY OF COMBINING CEMETERY AND PUBLIC SPACE 29

Graph 11, The heat map of the location of restaurants and cafes 30

Even uses that might seem permanent may be possible under temporal zoning in cemetery expansion areas. Consider drive-in theaters or even big-box retail stores, which seem to have useful lives of 20 years or so and are often more cheaply demolished than repurposed (Berke 2012; Leavenworth 2012). Many buildings could be designed and built for relatively short life spans and then razed when the cemetery needs the land. But careful long-term planning is required for such a temporal scheme to work. An expansion area might be permitted for commercial development with restrictions built into the conveyancing terms and zoning approval to require the removal of physical improvements when the expansion area is required for the cemetery use.

Therefore, the cemetery may be combined with the private industry or commercial space, because the traditional cemetery covers a large area, and in the future, with the increase of population, the demand of some commercial centers will increase, which will increase the space demand in the city. At the same time, the space of the cemetery can be used as a personal business or transformed into a new commercial center. Because the size of the cemetery as a commercial center is close to it, and there are a large number of people living near the cemetery, it can bring enough customers to the business center, and also solve the needs of dining, entertainment, etc. of the surrounding people.

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Graph 12, The location and shape of Melbourne dwellings 32

The cemetery is a byproduct of human civilization. Due to the distinctive ethnic features in various areas, different forms of the cemetery, including burial, burial at sea, cremation, tree burial, etc. However, with the improvement of the population, the use of the cemetery has occupied a large urban land, which leads the shortage of urban living space. However, because there are many ways to bury people, changes in the form of a cemetery can adapt to urban space through this feature.

According to NATALIE LAZAROO(2013), On 5 October 2011, Vulcana Women's Circus staged Grave Effects of Notable Women, a site-specific physical theatre show set in the Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane.This is a special holiday. Women who have circus performance skills will play the role of pastor, vampire and other performers in the cemetery. This festival attracted many spectators and lived up the atmosphere of the cemetery, making the cemetery no longer a place to be feared. According to NATALIE LAZAROO(2013), since its formation in 1995, Vulcana has developed a strong working relationship with women in different communities; based in the Stores Building of the Brisbane Powerhouse, the group's philosophy stems from traditions of inclusiveness, seeking to create a safe space for women – particularly vulnerable and marginalized women – to express themselves creatively, and to explore their physical potential. Therefore, the social activities of the cemetery can also be held in the same way as other activities in the commercial center and can bring benefits to the residents of the city. The cemetery became the place for the festival in this event, and it has a historical and cultural connection that gives people a better motivation to 33

participate in the event instead of staying awed by the cemetery. Therefore, the cemetery has an open space, a good vision, and a unique style. In the cemetery, there are many social activities of educational significance or entertainment, such as circus performances, some local festivals, and even educational gatherings for students.

According to Yu(2014), the intensive land use of vertical cemetery is the highest, while that of the rural social welfare cemetery is the lowest. That of the traditional burial is even higher than the public cemetery. The reasons lie in the fact that the traditional tombs are usually built in local farmlands which cut down the needs for some supporting facilities, such as parking lots and roads.

Besides, people often grow some vegetation on the tombs, which matches perfectly to the surrounding environment. But we should neglect the fact that the tombs built in these years are becoming larger and more deluxe. The surface is usually fixed with ceramic tiles without any growing vegetations. The tombs have lost its original ecological functions. The lawn cemetery, as the newly - emerging one in recent years, could achieve a greening rate of 80% and create great recreational values for the public.

And the lawn cemetery is also easy to be recultivated. Although the commercial cemeteries in an urban city and the social welfare cemeteries in rural areas have high density and volume rate, the uniform functions and hardened ground result in very limited land use structure. The recycled use of cemeteries is also impossible. Therefore, in the future, the new cemetery needs to be planned in a new way, because the traditional cemetery will be difficult to be completely transformed into a similar one, as the tombstone becomes larger and more luxurious and sacrifices a lot of urban lands. The space of the park. Therefore, in the future, 34

the cemetery needs to change the form and organization of the tombstone to cater to the development of the city.

3 CONCLUSION People's understanding of the cemetery is peaceful on the one hand. On the other hand, a cemetery is still a place separate from the city. People fear it and fear it. The disturbing quality of death ultimately affects us all. However, this is because. The form of the cemetery may need to be changed. In order to better integrate into the modern city, the cemetery needs to be a new public space that exists in the city, not just as a traditional cemetery, just for burying the dead and remembering them. The cemetery can become a new type of industry, and it can also get rid of the traditional concept and become an urban space that people are more willing to interact with. The burial crisis brings new demands for change, that is, the sustainable development of new cities. The cemetery landscape may evolve into a new space, or merge with other spaces, and urban residents no longer use the cemetery as an isolated space. How to discover the new form of Melbourne cemetery and the planning and management of the new cemetery is a problem that Melbourne planners need to consider now and in the future. It should be historically, geographically and spatially reconsidered in the development of the cemetery. At present, we need to find more areas that can be built into 35

cemeteries, but in the future, we can't just build cemeteries all the time. We need new forms of cemetery and ways to integrate cemeteries into cities to ease future land shortages. Happening.

REFERENCE LIST Anonymous， 2013， ‘ Planning and Regulating Cemeteries’， Planning Advisory Service Report，Vol.572 ， pp.21-42. Čanády, Alexander, and Ladislav Mošanský，2017 ‘ Public Cemetery as a Biodiversity Hotspot for Birds and Mammals in the Urban Environment of Kosice City (Slovakia)’， Zoology and Ecology Journal， Vol.27. Issue3-4 ， pp. 95-185. Web. Davenport, J. 2014, ‘The Future of Cemeteries in Australia: A Matter of Life and Death’, Vol.108，pp.32.

Lazaroo, Natalie ， 2013 ， ‘Circus in the Cemetery: Transforming Space and Unearthing Memory in Vulcana Women's Circus Performance, Grave Effects of Notable Women’，Australasian Drama Studies, Vol.62, Li, Mingping, and Zhongxiang Yu, 2014,

pp.194-205, Web.

‘Study on the Intensive Use of Rural Cemetery Lands from the Perspective of

Multiple Functions’, Vol.6，pp.50-53.

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Paul Hogben & Judith O’Callaghan, 2015, ‘The Institution of Perpetual Memory: The Typology of the Cemetery and the Generative Potential of Renewable Tenur’, Paper, Vol.32

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