Lethe

from Thesis & Work Portfolio Samuel Deng

by Samuel D

TONKATSU

Crematorium for sea burial

SITE: Waverley Cemetery, NSW

STUDIO: Anthony Coupe

CONCEPT & ISSUE IN NSW

The idea of entire project was triggered by a single theme—WATER. Therefore, the program of the design is functioning as a crematorium where mainly offers sea burial and other green burial types in order to decelerate the predicted exhaustion of grave plots in next twenty years in New South Wales. According to Metropolitan Sydney Cemetery Capacity Report, the capacity of cemeteries in the Central, South and North regions has extreme limited numbers of available grave plots compares to the evaluated deaths for those regions in the upcoming decades. Thus, the site Waverley Cemetery in Sydney was chosen to resolve the issue of cemetery space shortages.

Established in 1877, it is an iconic landscape set in an enclosing shallow valley, perched on the cliffs above the Tasman Sea. The distinctive Cemetery is characterised by the open and exposed landscape of vertical monuments facing the open ocean. The project is situated in the right front to the open valley, which stands in the sea with main body elevated above the water.

The form of the building was derived through studying and abstracting haiku poems. By converting literature into images in order to find the architectural form to develop further.

The bridge enveloped in a dense fog connects between land and building, in other word: a path leading to another world. The open deck where ashes of the deceased can be scattered in the sea. Alternatively, the deceased family may choose dump full body of deceased into deep sea where 60km offshore by taking boat. The ocean will become the final resting place for their tired soul.

The artificial mist around the bridge as if leading people into another world. When people enter into the fog mass, visual and acoustic references are erased, leaving only an optical “white-out”, sensory intuitive becomes the only thing to rely on. When people looking back, they already cannot see the land. Keep moving, step into an another world.