The style we lay to rest our dead has n’t commute much over the past two thousand years . But it needs to change soon , accord to a group of designers , benevolent foundation , and funeral directors who shop a recent design competition to rethink entombment traditions in the aspect of emerge problem with the status quo . It ’s a less less macabre conception than it sounds .
In fact , there are some somewhat compelling reasons to change the way we swallow up each other . For one thing , we ’re running out of space : in cities especially , cemetery overcrowding is a major trouble . More significantly , both burial and cremation are surprisingly uncollectible for the surroundings , not to mention the wellness of the living — our dental fillings , for example , release thousands of Pound of hydrargyrum into the atmosphere when we ’re cremate .
What ’s holding up a gyration in the manner we bury our stagnant ? The response is complex . Most of us are uncomfortable with babble frankly about death , and ritual is there to help oneself to calm that anxiety . There are also effectual hurdles with unconventional burials , not to observe challenges from the established commercial diligence that surrounds funerals . Still , the “ natural burial ” movement , which seeks to make bural more eco - friendly , is gaining momentum . So are less schematic burial methods , from quad - borne ashes tofireworks .
So in April , Designboom launchedDesign for Death , a contention that tempt designers to offer new sepulture methods . In the oddment , they incur 2,050 proposals and propagate over $ 100,000 in dirty money money . A group of juryman — including architect Richard Meier , artist Ray Ceasar , and the director of the National Funeral Directors Association — vote to pick the good .
Some of them are trite , others are muscular — and most are a act of both . After all , the way we mourn ( and the ways we take and give solace ) differ for everyone . With that in psyche , some of these house decorator make hefty arguments for alteration . Check them out below .
“ By trying to bear on stagnant body , we deny destruction , envenom the living , and further harm the surroundings , ” says MIT research fella and creative person , Jae Rhim Lee , the decorator behind the so - predict Mushroom Death Suit . The idea is simple : sure strains of mushroom are in reality capable to remediate toxins . Knowing that the average torso is host to 219 different chemicals — all of which ooze into the dirt when we decompose — Jae Rhim ’s proposition would use “ demise suit ” covered in the mushroom-shaped cloud to preclude the ranch of toxin into the soil .
Three French designers proposed this eco - coffin , made from biodegradable charge card and embedded with a tree seedling , as an choice to a traditional steel , wood , or plastic box seat . The beautiful matter about their design ? Co2 emitted from your trunk ’s rotting will power a incessantly - glowing headstone on the Earth’s surface . It ’s a ego - powered memorial .
Hungarian room decorator Agnes Hegedus created this graceful little urn for a style of burial that was once more democratic : the water - free-base cremation . Except in this case , the body is n’t cremate on the water supply . Rather , an urn carry your ashes float out to ocean aboard a clay stack , which is designed to sink lento down to the ocean floor . The wad would be only a few dollars to make .
The increasingly common practice of “ cloud seeding , ” which alters the chroma of born rainfall by literally “ seeding ” it with special chemical , help as the basis for this idea from two UK design teams . “ world now have the ability affect , control and even make instinctive phenomena , whether it is rainfall , an earthquake or a flood , ” save the interior decorator . “ We wonder if a person could do this not just by their natural action , but literally transmute themselves into types of natural spectacle . ” The conception would use a weather balloon to sway your ashes into the sky — let go them high up above the ground , to be “ rained ” back down in million of droplets of water . Though it ’s plausibly deeply illegal , it ’s still a lovely idea .
“ Multifunctional land is not a non - renewable resourcefulness , ” argues Ancunel Steyn , the South African designer behind this proposal . “ The interrogative sentence is , how can we reduce space required to store the drained ? ” Steyn proposed an urban design that would interlard memorial with public substructure : from parks , to art galleries , to sundry - used commercial-grade buildings . The memorial themselves would take up a very small , tissue box - sized infinite , stacked on a serial of walls arrange around the site .
Two Lithuanian designers create this hexangular design for an urn - reposition arrangement . The melodic theme , as the title suggest , is to make a literal family tree of urns . There ’s also a digital element , which could amount off as smart or tacky , depending on how you experience about SMS - based memorials : “ The urn hurdle is made of wood , with an OLED display detonator , ” explain the duo . “ The exhibit emits a serene , pulsing luminance that conveys otherworldliness and displays the name of the departed with a short memorial substance . ”
This simple design , by Gallic artist Chen Jiashan , is half windchime and one-half urn . “ Why should we keep the deceased ones away from our eyes ? , ” enquire Jiashan . “ The souvenair , modest in sizing but understandably seeable , can be hanged at rest home or in a public place . Its tiny and appeasing ‘ ding ’ recalls the presence of the loved one whenever some wind blow out . ”
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