Cemetery in the City

CEMETERY IN THE CITY

An object serving as a reminder of death1

Latin, remember (that you have) to die2

Often referenced in "vanitas" still life paintings in which rotting fruit or skulls are depicted, displayed in the house as a daily remainder of death3

In modern research, considering death daily can increase empathy and affect materialism4

1 Miriam Webster Dictionary

2 Ibid.

3 Gardiner, Art Through the Ages

4 Jonas, Schimel, Greenberg, Pyszcsynski. “The Scrooge Effect: Evidence that Mortality Salience Increases Prosocial Attitudes and Behavior”

THE IDEAL SITE

• close to the city center

• a pedestrian pathway

• relationship to water

The cemetery has, historically, been pushed out of the city due to fear and taboo surrounding death. This thesis proposes to return the cemetery to the city, bringing death to life, and life to death. Confronting death on a daily basis would have profound impacts on the city and the citizen. A funeral occurs while pedestrians walk to work. This juxtaposition of mourning/morning implicate the monumentality of a commute and the mundane in a funeral. Death becomes an everyday occurrence, as the scent of baked bread.

The chosen site spans the Fort Point Channel, connecting downtown Boston and South Station (left) to the growing Seaport District and Convention Center (right).

5Aries, Western Attitudes toward death

The thesis specifically seeks to remedy the avoidance of death plaguing our culture. Sociologists describe a modern inability to comprehend our own deaths.5 The current public has an unconscious immortal attitude, exacerbated by a seemingly everlasting digital presence, and our hectic urban lives.

Certain funerary rituals could be used as precedents in alleviating these issues in cities. New Orleanian and Mexican attitudes are celebratory and confront death with positivity. Urban funerary practices often concern the physical remains, specifically the spatial requirements. In the Cuban Necropolis, bodies are stored in a coffin until decomposition, and are then moved to a smaller box. In Japan, a scarcity of space has spurred a practice of storing ashes in buildings that act as vending machines, retrieving remains upon request. In The vending machine cemetery lacks a sense of place, leaving some visitors unfulfilled.6 In Indonesia, some households keep the body in the house for a period of time after death, treating the remains as if the person were alive.7 The Tibetan sky burial is an interesting intersection of spiritual beliefs and practical needs. Monks live above the tree line in the rocky Tibetan mountains. Remains cannot be buried or cremated. Remains are dismantled and fed to vultures in the continuity of life. The monks believe that the spirit is passed on through the life of the vulture. Special structures are built to house the offering of remains.8 The thesis required finding this intersection of belief and practicality in Boston, and then designing an Architecture to house it.

Research included interviewing a funeral director, a grave digger, designers of cemeteries, and many peers in Boston, digging into statistics, and visiting many cemeteries. Today, 60% of bodies are cremated, and this number is growing. Most people interviewed desired to be cremated after donating organs. Once cremated, most did not have strong feelings for the placement of their ashes so long as loved ones had a physical place to visit. Artifacts or life accomplishments in physical form were more important than bodily remains. Many were interested in “going back to the earth,” a current zeitgeist of green burial. While important and interesting, dispersing remains in soil is not practical for a cemetery in the city.

6Halime, Avant Garde Afterlife Space Shortage Inspires New Burial Ideas and Suzuki The Price of Death: The Funeral Industry in Contemporary Japan

7May, Fascinating Funeral Traditions from Around the Globe

8Beakrak, “Dead Join the Living in a Family Celebration”

ORGAN DONATION

DECOMPOSITION BY MUSHROOM

EMBALMING

BURYING ASHES

TIBETAN SKY BURIAL

VIKING FUNERAL

ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN BURIAL

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ FUNERAL

SPREADING ASHES

CREMATION

VENDING CREMATORY

CUBAN NECROPOLIS

Program includes general funerary facilities: a chapel, meeting room, cooler, furnace and a viewing room, viewing the body has been shown to help mourners come to terms with the death of a loved one. The library holds artifacts of the people buried at the cemetery, a gallery curates shows with selected objects from the library. An event hall hosts the events of life (proms, weddings, galas) amongst death. These program elements occupy the edges of a plaza and street, the burial grounds.

This thesis takes the idea of “going back to the earth” and instead, remains “go back to the city.” Ashes are mixed into concrete to construct the surface of the cemetery. Like writing in wet cement on the sidewalk, imprints or embedded objects could mark the “stones.” A grid holding the stones warps into steps or a wall shaping various experiences. Prior to a death, plots contain wooden framework to be replaced by its concrete form. Empty plots contain plants or views out to the city.

REMAINS

The cemetery spans the Fort Point Channel, connecting South Station and Downtown Boston to the Convention Center and growing Seaport District via a chain of planned parks.

DESIGN

Animation stills approaching site from South Station

Aerial view of cemetery

Three orientations drove the design. Upward (to the heavens, skies, light, stars, etc.), downward (inward reflection), and outward (toward the city). Inward and upward orientations can be lonely and intense. It is important to balance these emotions with a outward feeling of connectedness to the urban community.

The chapel has an upward orientation, the viewing room has a downward or inward orientation toward the water, the library and event spaces have an outward orientation.

In addition to orientation, path impacted the placement of program. The paths of pedestrian, mourner, and remains are distinct, becoming parallel at specific moments.

Pedestrians can approach the cemetery via inclined planes or stairs on either side. Each span reacts to views and the land to which it connects, providing a unique series of experiences as one moves through the cemetery. At the center, a plaza offers two routes for the pedestrian, outside, or through the enclosed gallery space.

The mourner arrives from South Station, rises up to the plaza. From here, mourners gather to watch the remains arrive via boat. The mourner then descends to the viewing room, and ascends to the chapel for a service.

Diagram of Movement

A majority of the program is at the plaza level. The gallery and chapel directly relate to the plaza. The chapel sits at the central point of the cemetery, rising high to work as both a structural element and chimney for the furnace. The chapel opens up to the plaza, using the plaza as an extension for large gatherings. The gallery provides an alternative indoor route through the cemetery skirting the plaza visible through a curving glass facade. The gallery acts as a large vestibule for the library and event space above. The library stacks splay out towards the city. As artifacts fill the library, the city becomes a backdrop for these mementos. Two story spaces serve as a sitting areas to view artifacts and look out at the city.

The upper level houses the event space overlooking the city, a small kitchen, and a balcony.

Remains arrive at the lower level, where they are stored in a cooler, viewed in a two-story space looking out at the channel, and cremated.

PLANS

A cast-in-place concrete center holds up the plaza and structures at the center of the bridge. Precast concrete cylinders make up the spans. A coffered concrete roof structure allows for a large span in the event space and provides acoustic benefits.

Two grave typologies block cold winter winds from affecting pedestrians. A 50% porous wall effectively slows wind without forcing it over and ultimately back down, this leaves space for pedestrians to see through the wall of graves, and places for planting. These grave types are placed intentionally to block wind from the northwest, shaping the curvature of the spans.

DIAGRAMS

The cemetery responds to its environment in several ways. Overhangs provide shade in southern facing glazed areas, like the gallery. Roof edges collect rainwater, distributing it to plants below, and draining to the channel. The plaza and all building elements sit well above the 100 year flood line. Mechanical systems in the belly of the plaza provide air to the library, event space, and viewing area. The furnace exhausts through a chimney in the wall of the chapel.

100 year flood

high tide

low tide

RENDERINGS

Spans are constructed of precast concrete cylinders. All inhabilitable surfaces are wood, planted, or graves. The wooden path winds to frame specific views of the city. Graves morph from floors into walls to shape experience and calm winds. Planting fades into graves, taking over with time.

Span Section including stairs on Seaport side

The plaza, a central point in the cemetery beneath which the structure anchors to the channel bottom, is focused on the chapel. The chapel’s exterior mimics the curvilinear concrete structure of the bridge’s underside. The chapel interior, constructed of steam-formed wooden planks, continues the wooden path up the chapel walls.

Animation Stills

View from South

The viewing room is focused on the water and inward reflection.

Viewing the body has been show to help some people with the acceptance of a death. As the experience can be overwhelming, a view of water is a soothing backdrop. For those who do not wish to see the body, curtains can be drawn across the second level. This space is visible from a distance along the shores of the channel. It’s visibility is purposeful. One might visit this room after having seen it from afar, or look back on this window in memory of a farewell.

Library with view of Downtown

Event hall with city backdrop

In the summer of 2016, my sister and I were hiking in Maine. We came upon a cemetery in which we met a friendly man on his bicycle. He explained that he was there to visit his plot, and he comes often. He bikes to the cemetery to sit on his plot and eat lunch. Once a year, everyone who has a plot in the cemetery comes for a party, they sit on their plots, eat and drink. He embraced death, and life. This was an inspiration for what the cemetery would be for the city of Boston.