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DEATH BECOMES HER
Katrina Spade pivoted from working in the field of architecture to drafting a surprising new model to deal with burial and mourning.
“THE LAST THING WE DO ON THIS EARTH IS POISON IT,”
says Katrina Spade, referring to the by-products of most traditional burial methods in the United States. A trained architect and now founder and executive director of the nonprofit Urban Death Project in Seattle, Spade spends a lot of time thinking about what happens to our physical bodies when we die— and, specifically, how we can improve upon heavily polluting business-as-usual burial practices. Millions of tons of concrete, hardwood, and metal go into the ground as caskets and vaults. Hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon dioxide are released into the air during cremation, and uncounted millions of gallons of toxic embalming fluid are used every year, eventually seeping into ground water. Spade offers an alternative. In her plan, named Recomposition, bodies become compost for gardens in city-based facilities. Her ethos is part revolutionary architect, part environmental activist, and part funeral-industry disruptor. “Uninspiring funeral homes, industrial crematories—they don’t hold a lot of meaning,” says Spade. “But the death experience is designed by the living, and we can take charge of it.” Her proposal, which blew past its initial $75,000 goal to reach $91,000 on Kickstarter in early 2015, envisions a library branch– like system of Urban Death facilities in city neighborhoods. Each building will house a central core surrounded by a
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winding ramp. During the funeral ceremony, friends and family of the deceased, carrying the linen-wrapped body, will lead a procession to the top of the building. There the mourners will lower the body into the core, where, over the course of several months, it will decompose amid wood chips, straw, and other organic material, resulting in nutrient-rich compost. Families will be encouraged to take some away, and the rest will enrich the facilities’ park-like sites and the soil throughout the urban area, “folding the deceased back into the fabric of the city,” says Spade. If you think this is just a pipe dream, Spade has gotten international attention for her idea and has been working full time on it for the past two and a half years, funded by a fellowship from the Echoing Green Foundation. She’s garnered the support of noted architectural firm Olson Kundig—the firm hosted Spade for a week this past spring and lent its input into the system prototype design—and the Washington State University soil science department, which will collaborate with Spade on a pilot program to refine the Recomposition system and test remaining questions regarding the human composting process. Spade hopes to build the first prototype this coming spring. “Death is mysterious and miraculous, and it deserves a lot more care and ritual than we give it now,” says Spade. “Architecture and design can play an important role in that.” h
RENDERINGS COURTESY KATRINA SPADE FOR THE URBAN DEATH PROJECT (TOP LEFT AND OPPOSITE) COURTESY OLSON KUNDIG FOR THE URBAN DEATH PROJECT (TOP RIGHT)
Written by STACY KENDALL