USF SACD Masters Project - "Voyages of Death" Lawrence Raposo

VOYAG E S of DE AT H

by L a w r e n c e R a p o s o

VOYAG E S of DE AT H LAWRENCE RAPOSO UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND COMMUNITY DESIGN

MASTERS PROJECT A masters research project presented to the Graduate School of Architecture and Community Design at the University of South Florida in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Architecture.

THESIS CHAIR JOSUE ROBLES Professor USF SACD

THESIS COMMITTEE BOB MACLEOD

Program Director USF SACD

C H R I S W E AV E R Professor USF SACD

LEVENT KARA ,Ph.D Professor USF SACD

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To the individuals who have influenced me to become the person I am today.

To the professors who taught me that architecture knows no limits, and the friends who helped me realize who I truly am.

Thank you.

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CONTENTS

A

b

08

38

52

70

R

R ESEA RCH AND PR ECEDENTS

B BEYOND THE DARK VEIL

AB ST RACT

V

VOYAGES OF DEAT H

D

06

30

DOCT RI N ES

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PU RGATORY

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L IST OF FIGU RE S A ND BIBL IOG RA PH Y

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H P A L H A R ROWING

ANA STA SIS

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ABSTRACT Although the world’s many doctrines may explain interpretations of certain afterlives, what are the transitions to these realms?

As society has come to the overall accordance that there is no correct answer to what exactly happens both in and after death, the question then becomes, why have so many differing views of death and afterlife been established?

It has often been speculated that one solves the problem of death with religion, when in reality most religions simply do not clarify the ideology of death and afterlife, but rather speak of how one should live their life to get to either A or B, darkness or light.

These doctrines guide and tell the stories of how humans can be part of a much larger spectrum of reality. Consciousness no longer exists solely within the body. While a very small amount of theologies refute an afterlife, most conceive that consciousness may prevail not only indefinitely, but immortally. Within these doctrines lie the answers to deaths greatest mysteries.

Through them, we find the many voyages that one may find themselves taking throughout the vast and desolate world of death and the afterlife.

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RESEARCH AND PRECEDENTS

THE LOVERS

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T H E E Y E S O F T H E S K I N: Architecture and the Senses

by JUHANI PALL ASMA A

Fig. 1- The Lovers

While looking back at what makes certain cemeteries unique, one would probably very rarely look at the relationship between the built form and the human body. This relationship, much stronger than most realize, is essential for creating a strong emotional response to the architecture.

In a world heavily dominated by the dependence of the visual field, we find that the reliance “…of the eye and the suppression of the other senses tend to push us into detachment, isolation and exteriority”(Pallasmaa,22). This concept becomes apparent when one begins to fixate on any object, where focusing on the object itself tunes us out of our surroundings, while peripheral vision envelopes us into the space. But yet, “in heightened emotional states and deep thought, vision is usually repressed.” (Pallasmaa,22). The question thus becomes not necessarily how a cemetery can be designed for its visual pleasure, but how that cemetery can be shaped to inhibit the appropriate emotional responses. To achieve this, architects must think beyond the presence of the eye, to imagine their work, as if explored through all senses individually, having each one bringing an entirely new meaning to the proposed piece, all while harmoniously working together to achieve a heightened experience.

DEATH, RITUAL, AND BELIEF

by DOUGLAS J. DAVIS

Although the world is composed of hundreds of thousands of cultures and beliefs, the most common thing that all humans share is both their experience of birth as well as death. Yet, death can be noted as the root of all anxiety and fear that we experience. With that fear of death, humans have succumbed to devising ways to try and explain exactly what it is that happens to us after we die.

A majority of cultures have believed in a destiny beyond life that exists past a single lifetime. To accompany this and guide the spiritual being, many funerary rituals have been established which essentially is seen as a “defense of society against untamed nature”(Davies, 4). The cemetery itself in physical form acts as a resting place for the dead, but yet the true space of death is no longer enclosed by a physical space.

“It is space, all space. And the material body becomes as immaterial as the soul” (Davies, 35). The question then arises of whether or not a cemetery can become, or perhaps in some cases have already become, a space that further guides the individuals both alive (descendants) as well as the dead (deceased). Through tears and the acts of crying, we find social values and ideals, while showing physical proof of emotions. “Feeling is ever given shape through thought and that thought is laden with emotional meaning...

Emotions are thoughts somehow ‘felt’ in flushes, pulses, movements of our livers, minds, hearts, stomach, skin. They are embodied thoughts”(Davies, 47).

Fig. 2- The Triumph of Death

THE TRIUMPH OF DE AT H

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THE ARCHITECTURE OF DEATH

by RICHARD A. ETLIN

During the mid-18th Century Europe it was not uncommon to come across any graveyard, cemetery, or church that depicted scenes of macabre deaths, morbid statues, or other works of art displaying an imaginative fascination of the human body. Serving as a memento mori, (Latin: remember that you must die) these were meant to shock the general public into realizing their mortality, establishing that every human must eventually cease to live. Traditionally, to get this thought across, the human remains were to be laid to rest within the confines of the churchyard. This, in return, left a daily almost habitual alluding to what lay ahead as each and every church parishioner would walk past rows of gravemarkers on their way into the church, occasionally remembering their own loved ones who lay near. Once overcrowding of small churches were apparent, graveyards then turned to cemeteries, placing these fields of rest on the outer city limits. With the creation of new cemeteries came the opportunity to explore the very typology itself, bringing on new conceptual ideas. At the height of the Enlightenment, architects were highly influenced by how “everything which astonishes the soul, everything which imparts a feeling of terror leads to the sublime”(Etlin, 224), which was used as a catalyst in devising a subconscious awareness of memento mori. Others looked to expanding the very idea of what a tomb could entail.

In homage to Sir Issac Newtons cosmic discoveries, Étienne-Louis Boullée saw to it that his tomb would be no less. Promoting architecture expressive of its purpose, his proposal would encompass all of Newtons beliefs in a physical form “burying Newton within his own discovery and hence, within himself.”(Etlin, 180). Soon however, another sharp contrast of typology formed where the cemetery no longer focused on inspiring less somber, and beginning to focus on more tender feelings. Elysium, as its referred to, is the classical landscape which soon became identified as the last stage of human existence.

Fig. 3- Wanderer Above the Mist

WA N D E R E R ABOVE THE MIST

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OPHELIA

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DEATH: CURRENT PERSPECTIVES

by EDWIN S. SCHNEIDMAN

Fig. 4- Ophelia

Thanatology, the study of death and dying, was derived from Thanatos, the mythical Greek god of death, twin of Hypnos the god of sleep. Through thanatology, society can begin to understand how humans behave both when experiencing the death of the loved one, as well as when they themselves are dying, and some of the rituals performed to balance out the emotions of such events. One such remediation is the construction of an afterlife, and that “the immortality of the soul has been that souls are not only immortal, but eternal”(Schneidman, 88). This gives humans hope, but while that may solve many issues, if they were guaranteed an afterlife, and it were proven, “life would be irretrievably spoilt. It would be pointless; an suicide, a virtue” (Schneidman, 88). On the other side of the spectrum, however, believers of heaven and hell would ultimately define their fate in regards to their actions in their earthly bodies. A sudden shift in ideology within the past hundred years has completely skewed the idea of death in modern times. Once a daily part of life in the 18th and 19th Centuries, death was seen to be everywhere, life expectancy was nearly half of what it is today, and terminal illness was not uncommon, which made people much more aware and mindful of death. But with the introduction of modern medicine and exploitations of death and violence (to the point where death is now pornographic, as it is shunned by the prude) we find that death and the process of dying is hidden away from society, and very rarely will it be accepted. This is evident in how many Americans will try to transform death, by putting make-up on our loved ones, yearning to have them back for one moment longer, as if that make-up, once placed on cheeks and lips, will again restore vitality. “‘Man fears death as the child fears the dark’ and truly the child in us will always fear the dark, until he has gone through it once and for all, willingly and thoroughly” (Schneidman, 132).

AN OCCUPATION OF LOSS

by TARYN SIMON

By dissecting the anatomy of grief into its purest form, artist Taryn Simon looks to reveal the obscured layers of this sombre emotion. Starting to explore the space that both grief and loss form, Simon begins questioning whether or not the act of grieving is scripted or authentic, and exposing how one reacts when the object of loss is no longer present. Believing that grief is both “beyond language and beyond words,”(Lynch) Simon searched for a way to make the act of loss and grief tangible, both visually and auditory, through a collaboration with Shohei Shigematsu/OMA. The 11 concrete towers measuring 45 feet high, serve as an intimate stage for 30 professional “mourners” to interact in a much more reserved environment with the audience. No different than Zoroastrian Towers of Silence [Towers built for ex-carnation by exposure to carrion birds] “the installation makes explicit the never-ending human need to give structure to death in order to understand it”(Lynch), for what would a cemetery be without the significance of lowering a loved one down for perpetual rest, therefore allocating a specific individualized site that is now personified as an explicit embodied place where one would not only lay, but also lends a space for descendants to appear and commemorate the deceased.

Simon manipulates many contrasting dualities throughout the piece, such as day and night, the scripted and authentic, the living and the dead, noting that each requires the other to survive. Due to the audience’s participation throughout the piece, the performances will be inevitably unrepeatable, as the movement of the audiences will dictate the way the piece unfolds.

Fig. 5- The Armory

THE A R M O RY

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TOMBA BRION-VEGA

by CARLO SCARPA

Renowned for his instinctive approach to materials, combining time-honored crafts with modern manufacturing processes, architect Carlo Scarpa tells the tale of death through the Brion-Vega Cemetery located in San Vito d’Altivole, Italy. The narrative explores the “dismal of death through contemplation and transfer in a daily and familiar horizon”(Futagawa, 10). Attached to a public cemetery for the people of the small village, the private BrionVega Cemetery was designed and heavily influenced by artificial landscapes created by prominent Chinese cultures that exhibited a sequence of pavilions that together work against any over-powering hierarchy. In doing this, one is found to wander from place to place, with many points but no definitive goal. Aspiring visitors to contemplate the human relationship to life and death, Scarpa exhibits two interwoven circles at one of the cemetery’s entrances, a “symbolic form of the eyes and their visual fields fused together”(Futagawa, 26) with both nature and site boundary creating a horizon line that only makes one think of the infinite. Towards one of the many hearts of the site, a massive lowered arch houses the Brion husband and wife, and “calls attention to the emotional centre of the whole itinerary.”(Futagawa, 33) With a play of words, Scarpa looked to the Italian name arca, which stood for both ark as well as sarcophagus. With its close relationship to nature, the visitor is relieved of mourning and grief, and welcomes contemplation for further understanding of life.

Fig. 6- Carlo Scarpa

CARLO S C A R PA

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MEMORIAL TO THE MURDERED JEWS

by PETER EISENMAN

PETER EISENMAN

Fig. 7- Peter Eisenman

While most architects would view memorials as waging war on forgetting, or rather designing spaces for the remembrance of certain events, Peter Eisenman on the other hand wanted to create a space that did not focus on memory, but about nostalgia. In the heart of Berlin, 2,711 concrete stelae all of the same footprint are sprawled out across a large plaza and arranged in parallel rows. Each individual stelae, set at the slightest of different angles, vary in height as the site undulates unpredictably. As they reach the extents of the site, the “fabric of the pattern begins to fray until it meshes with the surrounding streets” (Da Costa Meyer). With Eisenman’s intent on evoking emotions through the use of architectural language, he looks to inspire the viewer to create their own understanding for the work, rather than just merely representing an event through individual experience. As opposed to Eisenman, architects who agree with Architecture Parlante believe that an architectural work’s immediate visceral reactions are what are believed to be more captivating and emotional in memorializing events. However, Eisenman refutes this by stating that its the “works potential to generate independent thinking, that matters” (Da Costa Meyer). Because Eisenman sets a neutrality of design across the memorial, the viewer is allowed to explore the depths of the piece, while not being consumed by an over-powering literal meaning to the work: “The project is resolutely opaque: its strength relies precisely in the numbing silence of the rows of stelae, which do not arouse empathy, but foreclose it... no words or inscriptions give voice to grief, which is left to the private realm of individual response”(Da Costa Meyer)

CENOTAPH TO NEWTON

by ETIENNE- LOUIS BOULLEE

Recognized as an avant-garde architect for his time era, Etienne-Louis Boullee wanted to submit a design proposal for the late Sir Issac Newton’s tomb that radically challenged the notion of what a tomb could represent.

With clear notions of the emotional effects of Romanticism alongside the rationality of Neoclassicism and grandeur of antiquity, he attempts to encapsulate what Sir Issac Newton brought the world of science and honour his ideas through architecture. A five-hundred foot sphere was to be embedded into a threetier cylindrical base that would give the illusion to a buried mass. With the use of cypress trees, closely associated with grief and mourning in both Greek and Roman cultures, Boullee sought to convey feelings of sombre and awe. By honouring Newton as the sole mortal with the feat of discovering gravity, the single unifying law of the universe, he deemed it appropriate that his tomb deserved the same respect, and determined that it would lie at the center of gravity at the base of the colossal dome, which in return also added the only indication of human scale to the interior. By inverting the lighting conditions to the interior, Boullee wanted the inhabitant the be in perpetual awe.

During the day, light would penetrate through holes drilled into the thick shell corresponding with the locations of planets and constellations, giving the illusion of a celestial night sky, while during the night, a massive luminare suspended at the dead center, would flood the empty core and reveal its true scale, and further succumb into the sublimity that Boullee intended.

Fig. 8- Etienne-Louis Boullee

ETIENNE-LOUIS BOULLEE

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EINSTEIN’S TOMB PAMPHLET ARCHITECTURE 6

by LEBBEUS WOODS

Challenged by Steven Holl to create an addition to the Pamphlet Architecture series, Lebbeus Woods countered with an eccentric proposal for a tomb to one of the most iconic scientists ever, Albert Einstein. Following the ideas of EtienneLouis Boullee’s Cenotaph for Issac Newton as reference, Wood’s concept would be highly problematic as how could one “..create a form that, while being definite, played with the elasticity of time and space postulated by Einstein”(Woods, 2). Woods recalls how both Newton and Descarte both consider time as linear field of infinite extension, measured in increments, infinitely. Einstein however, “conceived a new time, one interdependent with the mechanics of motion and materiality.” (Woods, 6). He saw time as having qualities of transparency and elasticity, creating the ability to warp and skew, while circling with infinite renewal and continuity. Woods believed that if the tomb was to be Einstein’s perpetual sanctuary, it would need to embody his ideals. The form, reminiscent of the four quarters of Earth, (Dawn, Day, Dusk, Night) and (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter), are conceptualized by Woods as having the second and fourth quarters being transitions,“fulcrum points between two pure states of light and darkness... birth, death... ascent, descent” (Woods, 12). While at the same time, Woods transcends Einstein’s tomb by attesting that is has always existed, and will forever exist until its limitless journey is over by returning back to Earth.

Fig. 9- Lebbeus Woods

LEBBEUS WOODS

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ENRIC MIRALLES

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CEMENTIRI NOU D’IGUALADA

by ENRIC MIRALLES

Fig. 10- Enric Miralles

Working towards a symbolic and seamless convergence between architecture and site, Spanish architect Enric Miralles defines what it means to unify an architecture of the land.

With the selection of an undulating terrain in the city of Igualada, Spain, Moralles gently sculpted and guided his design to naturally adapt to the site. By doing this, when one approaches the cemetery, the built form is partially hidden and blends into its surroundings, where “the work is able to exist in its own right, without becoming another layer of land on which it stands”(Zabalbeascoa, 15). Miralles accomplished this by conforming to an ancient Japanese landscape technique known as Shakkei, or borrowed scenery, where the foreground is extended into the distance. By situating the built form specifically on the site, all three work together to form a single unifying landscape.

Specifically to the cemetery and fundamental to his design, Miralles wanted to convey the idea of the passage of time, as well as it’s relationship to the cycle of life and death. To accomplish this, Miralles engaged the use of certain materials and construction techniques that ultimately conveys a desconstuctivist under-construction aesthetic.

By using materials such as raw concrete, exposed steel rebar and inlayed wood planks, the course of nature over time would soon reveal an honest history of the cemetery. With the use of trees and allotment for plants to grow throughout the plan of the design, the cemetery plans on soon being completely covered. By “effectively burying it, this work actively challenges the notions of death at its end, as a denial of life. Instead it allows life subtly to pervade the territory of the dead”(Zabalbeascoa, 34)

Fig. 11- Souls on the Banks of the Acheron

VOYAG E S of DE AT H

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32

Fig. 12-Dualites of Death

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DOCTRINES, THEOLOGIES AND CONSTRUCTS The most common attribute of the human body is the fact that it will, indeed, perish. Of all humans ever created, there has been or will be a death. Many people will have their preconceived notions of what exactly happens to us once we die, however, these beliefs were carefully formed and sculpted through hundreds of thousands of thoughts, experiences, readings, and interactions.

Starting at an astonishingly young age, within the mind we have the ability to begin constructions of the idea of death. An infant, perplexed by the alchemy of which the simple game of “peek-a-boo” has them questioning the very idea of existence.

I see you, therefore you are.

My loss of visuals are tethered, therefore you are no longer.

This attempt to master the mysteries of being and non-being begin to create a deep seeded root for the ideology of death, surrounded by the dualities of darkness and light, separation and reunion. By the early ages of 3-5, a child still does not have the ability to establish spatial and temporal distance, so although you are away, your child thinks you do not exist, and will long for you to be ‘here’ where visually they can confirm the reality of your existence. As years pass, they begin to see death with finality as they are aware of its permanence, although they argue of the ability for it to be eluded altogether, and believe that by no means is it inevitable. At the ages of 9 and 10, adolescents has established their core views of death as both final and imminent.

DOCTRINES, THEOLOGIES, AND CONSTRUCTS

As society has come to the overall accordance that there is no correct answer to what exactly happens both in and after death, the question then becomes, why have so many differing views of death and afterlife been established? It has often been speculated that one solves the problem of death with religion, when in reality most religions simply do not clarify the ideology of death and afterlife, but rather speak of how one should live their life. Regardless, these constructions of death serve to alleviate the human of the mysteries and perplexities that arise when one contemplates it.

The fact that we cannot understand what we have not been able to experience not only instills fear and anxiety in the individual but is known as the deepest root of fear itself. Modern science has been able to explain and interpret many questions that have come across our daily lives, but has barely been able to answer even the simplest of questions regarding death. As such, humans have resorted to religion to answer their fears with hope and aspiration. “The average man cannot reconcile himself to death: Therefore he makes innumerable philosophies and theologies: The prevalence of a belief in immortality is a token of the awful fear of death.� (Durant) These doctrines guide and tell the stories of how humans can be part of a much larger spectrum of reality. Consciousness no longer exists solely within the body. While a very small amount of theologies refute an afterlife, most conceive that consciousness may prevail not only indefinitely, but immortally.

The concept of perpetual consciousness has had the largest effect of alleviation towards the fear and abhorrence towards death.

Within these doctrines lie the answers to deaths greatest mysteries. Through them, we find the many excursions that one may find themselves taking throughout the vast and desolate world of death and the afterlife.

These are:

VOYAG E S of DE AT H

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R C

Relic

Censorship

Fig. 13-Mother Consoling Deceased Child

BEYOND THE DARK VEIL The death of a loved one is never an easy experience.

The body not only goes through tremendous physical, but most importantly mental strain. The mind yearns for your presence once again, and will go through countless scenarios where things would’ve worked out differently, where you would simply exist once again.

While struggling with this dilemma a person would quickly find that the physical objects that once were tethered to your being are now seen as a comfort. What was once your favorite scarf, hair ribbon, or beloved love letters that were written in the midst of life, now become further embodied with your presence. They are connected to your recently lost existence, and are the closest tangible things that bring you back to this plane of existence. Serving as the ultimate anti-memento mori, these physical items are not reminders of death but rather relics of life. With the advent and commercialization of photography in the late Victorian Era and early Twentieth Century, a new practice of ephemeral keepsakes came to light. Postmortem photography became increasingly popular as it was seen as an ultimate relic of remembrance.

Families would spend an exorbitant amount of money for the sole ability of visually seeing their deceased loved ones. These small pieces of paper would then become some family’s most prized possessions. While the photos would show either the soon to be deceased, or recently deceased, the photos served as a form of remembrance during a time where death was accepted by society and seen as a normal subject that was often in discussion. By today’s standards however, these photos are seen by many as explicitly offensive, and are branded with a negative stigma. The censorship of such photos delineate contemporary views of the retraction of the subject of death and dying in society.

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BEYOND THE DARK VEIL

01

02

03

CHILD

SPOUSE

SIBLING

Deceased children were among the most popular of the post-mortem photographs as parents would attempt to hold on to the image of their child due to the unanticipated manner of their death.

After spending most of their lives together, spouses would turn to postmortem photography as a means to record their final moments together before departing from one another and creating a relic.

While many families were much larger during the era, the chances of losing a sibling to the many diseases and dangers of the time were also much higher.

Keeping photos of these siblings were customary.

Fig. 14-16 -Child, Spouse, Sibling

Fig. 17 -Brothers

BEYOND THE DARK VEIL

04

Fig. 18-31 -Beyond the Dark Veil

05

06

07

08

09

Fig. 32 -Doctrines

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D DOCTRINE

doc¡trine

/däktren/ noun:

-set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group.

DOCTRINES, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND PLANES OF EXISTENCE Through the ages, death has overcome society with wonderment and questions. One of the many ways that we as humans have come to deal with this are the use of doctrines and religion. These traditions have set forth the fundamentals of what happens to both our physical and mental selves in the afterlife. However, many doctrines are left ambiguous to the nature of these afterlives as we as conscious human beings cannot attain and experience these alternate levels of reality. While consciousness itself is subjective, most religions proclaim that there exists alternate levels of it. These worlds of consciousness serve as a progression of the soul, and offer consolation that we as conscious being move on eternally, whether it being a destination or an expedition and adventure.

When looking at the progression of the consciousness one may see the many layers as multiple planes of existence, each a place of inhabitation. These planes act as reliquaries for our souls for the time being until it is deemed appropriate to move on. In Western thought, the model of Catholicism serves its purpose of demonstrating that the fundamental of the doctrine is to encompass the soul and carry it to the afterlife. Thus, in our current realm the religion functions as a home for the soul awaiting for the transition to the adjacent mirroring afterlife where it is again encased by the same doctrine as a void.

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P E

Planes of

Existence

Fig. 33 -Planes of Existence

PLANES OF EXISTENCE

Fig. 34 -St. Pauls Catherdral Section

Fig. 35 -St. Pauls Catherdral Plan

P E

Planes of

Existence

Fig. 36 -Construct vs. Void

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While our current plane of existence is experienced on a horizontal plane, there may be in fact other worlds where we experience these planes in different orientations or dimensions. Thus, these shifting realms create an entirely new dynamic of consciousness and perception of experience.

Fig. 37-39 -Shifting Planes of Existence

Fig. 40 -Entry

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H HARROWING

har·row·ing ˈ/’heroiNG/ adjective:

-acutely distressing.

Fig. 41 -Initial Design Drawing

Fig. 42 -Final Design

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D

Descension

Fig. 43 -Harrowing into Hell

THE HARROWING INTO HELL While hundreds of doctrines can be identified all around the world, the similarities and connections between them can be seen all throughout. These religions, which can be radically different on the surface, may teach the same beliefs with countless overlaps. One such correspondence is the notion of right and wrong, and the outcome or consequences of each. These consequences ultimately serve as the driver for our lives, to do good and be rewarded with eternal bliss, or practice malevolence and succumb to damnation. The fear instilled by this very thought of Hell has functioned as a social moral construct. The outcomes are outlined, but how we get there has yet to be answered. This in itself causes irrational despair because we as humans fear what we have not yet been able to experience. What has been taught however would be that as soulful beings our conscious will be judged for how we have interacted in this world. After this judgment we are sent to one of the opposite extremes. The Harrowing to Hell being the darkest of the dualities not only instills fear, but inhibits the most primal of phenomenological distresses. After venturing through a fixed thin path suspended over void, the relief of your arrival to a construct is soon disillusioned by the realization that the path ends, with no means of returning. Standing on the very lip of the ledge, toes curling around it, you feel an instability beginning to take place. Looking down to the abyss with a pounding in your chest that reverberates your core, you extend one leg out and let fate overtake.

Your stomach plunges before you ever detach yourself from the physical into the void, and you descend.

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HARROWING INTO HELL

Instilling some of the most primal fears and emotions, the harrowing into hell causes the distress to both the soul and body. The soul, knowing that the judgment of despair was deemed due to your actions, and the body, being forced to experience the phenomenologically perturbing.

Fig. 44-46 -Drop, Gate, Debate

D

Descension

Fig. 47 -Primal Distress

Fig. 48 -Purgatory

P PURGATORY

pur路ga路to路ry /perge t么re/ noun:

-any condition or place of temporary punishment, suffering, expiation, or the like.

Fig. 49 -Middle Ground

P

Purgatory

Fig. 50 -As Above, So Below

AS ABOVE SO BELOW With the Final Judgment reasoning whether or not the soul deserves to be rewarded or castigated, there lies a realm where a consciousness may not have fulfilled their true destiny. The soul may be destined for good, but its actions in the physical world have not yet deemed it appropriate for remuneration.

The soul is then shifted to a middle ground of temporality between the two where the consciousness is then permitted to follow through to their destiny. This void is one where they are offered temporary punishment for their sins and must repent, or presented with the opportunity for benevolence to raise their moral status. With the concept of “as above, so below�, two coexisting worlds form an entirety. Our current realm exists as a construct, while the afterlife exists on an alternate plane, mirroring our own, but slightly shifted. These mirrored worlds are held together and can only exist in part by the middle ground of Purgatory. This middle ground connects the two realms and provides structure for each. The terrain formed by this internal realm claims no plane of existence and occurs in many dimensions allowing the consciousness to inhabit all levels. The terrain forms an arduous journey for the soul, meant to both make the individuals temporarily suffer as well as work their way towards a better moral standing.

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A S ABOVE SO BELOW

P

Purgatory

Fig. 51 -Instability

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Holding the two realms in place, the domain of purgatory exists as an unstable treacherous void. The imminence of collapse and pressure test the consciousness for its ability to venture on through the world and determine whether or not the soul may move on to the next realm.

Fig. 52-54 -An Arduous Journey

Fig. 55 - Portal

A ANASTASIS

an·a·sta·sis

an-as’-tas-is noun:

-A recovery from a debilitating condition -Rising up

Fig. 56 - Dualities of Anastasis

A

Anastasis

Fig. 57 - Explorations I

DUA L I T I E S O F A NA STA S I S As conscious beings, we aim to do good in our current realm as we have been taught that the more benevolence we can incur on both ourselves and others, the more positive our outcome will become. This outcome has for the most part been one of a personal achievement that souls strive to attain for the sole reason that the more good we can do now, the more we will receive in the next life. Doctrines have taught this ideology as another social moral construct in the anticipation that it can offer better realms for the next life. In religions all around the world, Heaven is presented for the consciousness that have led admirable lives.

Visions of leaving this plane of existence rising upwards to the sky can be seen all throughout Western thought. Feelings of loftiness, weightlessness, and airy delights fill us with hope and admiration. Although Western thought expresses this, other doctrines may teach otherwise. Western thought may teach upwards, but given that alternate planes of reality exist, there lies the potential for these to be expressed horizontally. Doctrines are known for their high contrasting dualities or light and darkness, good and bad, and for the case of anastasis, longitudinal and now horizontal planes of existence. The voyage to Heaven is now challenged by the thought that the consciousness may not be risen, but has the chance to decide their destiny though a constructed terminal.

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Fig. 58 - Explorations II

DUALITIES OF ANA STA SIS

A

Anastasis

Fig. 59 - Decisions

In the midst of the constructed terminal of Anastasis lies the separation of the two choices of planes of existence.

The consciousness is given the ability to accept a vertical or horizontal outcome, giving them the chance to explore.

Fig. 60-62 - Detail, Wandering, Aerial

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Fig. 63 - Voyages

BIBLIOGRAPHY Boorstein, Michelle. Atheist parents comfort children about death without talk of God or heaven. December 22, 2012. Washington Post. Accessed 14 Nov 2016. Website Code, P. and L. Poston. “Not Going Gentle into That Good Night: Science and Religion in the Face of Death.”

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LIST OF FIGURES Pg. 10 Pg. 11 Pg. 13 Pg. 16 Pg. 17 Pg. 19 Pg. 22 Pg. 23 Pg. 25 Pg. 28 Pg. 29 Pg. 33 Pg. 37 Pg. 39 Pg. 39 Pg. 39 Pg. 40 Pg. 41 Pg. 41 Pg. 41 Pg. 41 Pg. 41 Pg. 41 Pg. 41 Pg. 41 Pg. 42 Pg. 42 Pg. 42 Pg. 42 Pg. 42 Pg. 42 Pg. 43

Figure 1 - The Lovers Figure 2 - The Triumph of Death Figure 3 - Wanderer Above the Mist Figure 4 - Ophelia Figure 5 - The Armory Figure 6 - Carlo Scarpa Figure 7 - Peter Eisenman Figure 8 - Etienne-Louis Boullee Figure 9 - Lebbeus Woods Figure 10 - Enric Miralles Figure 11 - Souls on the Banks of Acheron Figure 12 - Dualities of Death Figure 13 - Mother Consoling Deceased Child Figure 14 - Child Figure 15 - Spouse Figure 16 - Sibling Figure 17 - Brothers Figure 18 - Beyond the Dark Veil 1 Figure 19 - Beyond the Dark Veil 2 Figure 20 - Beyond the Dark Veil 3 Figure 21 - Beyond the Dark Veil 4 Figure 22 - Beyond the Dark Veil 5 Figure 23 - Beyond the Dark Veil 6 Figure 24 - Beyond the Dark Veil 7 Figure 25 - Beyond the Dark Veil 8 Figure 26 - Beyond the Dark Veil 9 Figure 27 - Beyond the Dark Veil 10 Figure 28 - Beyond the Dark Veil 11 Figure 29 - Beyond the Dark Veil 12 Figure 30 - Beyond the Dark Veil 13 Figure 31 - Beyond the Dark Veil 14 Figure 32 - Doctrines

Pg. 46 Pg. 47 Pg. 48 Pg. 49 Pg. 50 Pg. 50 Pg. 50 Pg. 51 Pg. 53 Pg. 55 Pg. 57 Pg. 59 Pg. 59 Pg. 59 Pg. 60 Pg. 61 Pg. 63 Pg. 65 Pg. 67 Pg. 68 Pg. 68 Pg. 68 Pg. 69 Pg. 71 Pg. 73 Pg. 75 Pg. 77 Pg. 78 Pg. 78 Pg. 78 Pg. 79

Figure 33 - Figure 34 - Figure 35 - Figure 36 - Figure 37 - Figure 38 - Figure 39 - Figure 40 - Figure 41 - Figure 42 - Figure 43 - Figure 44- Figure 45 - Figure 46 - Figure 47 - Figure 48 - Figure 49 - Figure 50 - Figure 51 - Figure 52 - Figure 53- Figure 54 - Figure 55 - Figure 56 - Figure 57 - Figure 58 - Figure 59 - Figure 60 - Figure 61 - Figure 62 - Figure 63-

Planes of Existence St. Pauls Catherdral Section St. Pauls Catherdral Plan Construct vs. Void Shifting Planes of Existence 1 Shifting Planes of Existence 2 Shifting Planes of Existence 3 Entry Initial Design Drawing Final Design Harrowing into Hell Drop Gate Debate Primal Distress Purgatory Middle Ground As Above So Below Instability An Arduous Journey 1 An Arduous Journey 2 An Arduous Journey 3 Portal Dualities of Anastasis Explorations I Explorations II Decision Detail Wandering Aerial Voyages 84