The Future

21 22 The Future - 2050

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Prologue

Manchester has experienced a period of mass population growth over the past 30 years, in which the UK has become the largest nation in Europe. The increase in population coupled with a surging desire to live in the urban environment has led to a shortage of burial space and reduced crematorium capacity, in accordance with increasingly challenging climate targets. This presents a unique opportunity to reimagine the purpose of the cemetery for a more contemporary need.

Since the burial space crisis of 1811, the population has grown dramatically, and the city has scrapped to fill every available plot with homes, businesses, and infrastructure. Buildings were built for a specific use, with their purpose soon to become obsolete for the growing needs of the people. Manchester currently has more cranes on its skyline than any other city on the planet and continues to climb towards the sky.

The way we create, live and experience has shifted to the virtual, where the non-fungible token has allowed for the ownership of virtual property in the metaverse. Our possessions, conversations, and lives now exist as fragmented memories scattered across the blockchain, leaving a mass imprint of big data as a digital legacy when we pass away. These fragments are mourned by family, friends, and followers and require centralisation to give the bereaved control over the legacy or estate left behind. The Necropolis.

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A site that has dealt with the burying of corpses in the underlands will now play host to the biggest change in burial infrastructure in human history. It is an apt testing ground for this social and technical experiment, as the physical and digital worlds are colliding and coalescing; and the boundaries of the living and the living dead, and the present and the digital afterlives, are blurring. The necropolis will be constructed of a metabolic structure that celebrates and memorialises memories through its ritual, a burial infrastructure that can be reused, whilst attempting to use the energy embedded in the physical afterlife’s active ecosystem of decomposition to continue to power the memories of the people of Manchester.

The core of the required infrastructure should only be built in one place, as one last attempt to resolve the issues of the past. The area around the cathedral has seen slow development due to structural complications with building on top of the old arches, as well as the reluctance to grant permission for apartments and offices so close to a site of historical and religious importance. However, over these 28 years a trend has continued to develop, the clergy of Manchester has decreased, and religious belief has largely declined due to the deaths of Generation X and further technological developments. Victoria Street not only fulfils the physical criteria required, but also the future narrative of Manchester, a site that has dealt with the burying of corpses in the underlands will now play host to the biggest change in burial infrastructure in human history.

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Victoria Street Axo - 2050

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Loop Underground Transport Precedent

Loop is a mostly underground transportation system that offers point-to-point trips between stations where people board Tesla SUVs. One Loop system is already operating in Las Vegas with three stations and 1.7 miles of tunnel at the Las Vegas Convention Center. There are plans to expand the system throughout the Vegas strip, with 51 stations over 29 miles.

Transport in Manchester has changed drastically since 2022 and underground tunnels have been created to allow the transport of people and goods under the city. Loop is an example of how this system would work, where the deceased can be brought directly to the infrastructure rather than on public transport (due to the lack of roads in the city centre).

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