Undergraduate Thesis

Growth and Decay Place, Time and Loss

A Living Cemetery

Tamanna Tiku Study: 2016-17

Thesis submitted to the faculty of School of Architecture + Design, Virginia Tech in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Architecture in the Spring of 2017.

CONTENTS Thesis Motivation

Project • Nature of Place • Time and Saturation • People: - Grieving family :: Early Afternoon :: 2020 - Neighborhood Youngster :: Late Evening :: 2030 - Visitor :: Mid-Morning :: 2050 • Elements of Place

Studies • Linearity and Circularity • Nature of Adjacency • Above and Below • Means of Memory • Process and Culture

References

MOTIVATION

Existence is cyclical.

While time is unstoppable and linear in its universally accepted form, it does seem to halt in its place in moments of surprise and go around circles in moments of reflection.

Perception of time and time itself are distinguishable entities. It is the combination of the two, through which we perceive the world.

The occurrences of birth and death behave in a similar fashion. While they might seem like the beginnings and endings of a linear lifespan, they set a circular sequence of events in motion. Before birth exists the hope for life and after death comes the need to move on from its finality.

As the body withers, the tree grows.

How might a place reflect these inevitably connected occurrences of decay, birth, and growth – inherently distinct in nature, but leading to one another as time goes on?

PROJECT

NATURE OF PLACE

In the densely populated outskirts of New Delhi, residential mid-rises surround a park.

This park lends refreshing moments of rest and activity to the neighborhood.

How might a cemetery in this park begin a conversation about the sensitive acknowledgment of death within an active part of the city?

This confrontation of loss through a living cemetery instead of a lifeless graveyard is a medium for the dead to fuel life into a place that becomes a living, evolving entity itself.

The place then becomes a marker of the cycles of time.

View of the surrounding residences from the park

Inside the park

Inside the residential quarters

TIME AND SATURATION

0 years

In the year 2020, Markers are laid-out on the ground To form a grid that is only broken For paths that lead to rooms.

10 years

30 years

As time passes by, Under each marker, a lifeless body is placed And over it, a tree In the name of a dead being.

In this way, the dead adorn a park for the living Becoming a source of life and energy In the middle of residences.

Through time These trees are planted and ordered Away from the paths And towards the buildings So that the youngest trees are closest To the buildings and the tallest around the paths.

Inverted canopies of shade are formed around these rooms.

2020

2030

2050

The making of a physical model of the site led to an understanding of a temporal evolution of a place.

The documentation of the process, from when the model had no ‘trees’ to the last pin that was nailed into the ‘ground’ base, presented a holistic understanding of the cemetery’s journey to saturation.

GRIEVING FAMILY

Early afternoon 2020

I turned a corner into a narrow street Only to turn another that opened Into to a valley situated between high-rises.

With family I walked into a sunken path Whose walls hugged the forlorn, framed the sky And offered rhythmic reminders Through healing waters.

At the end a third wall Led us into a room inside a room under the sky That opened up from dark corridors of solitude To a room where the sun accompanied us as we prayed.

Walking out through another dark corridor, I landed under the sky again, Now to walk on ramps that led to rooms of preparation For the final departure.

Now carrying the weight of their name, We placed it on a piece of glass.

Safe among those of other members of community, A pristine but transparent reminder Of this fragile existence.

I now found a moment for myself As comforting light rained upon me In a room open to the valley And its liveliness.

On my way out, I climbed on to a walk in the sky Above the living trees of this valley Passing the windows of the high-rises And looking ahead.

With family I walked into a sunken path Whose walls hugged the forlorn, framed the sky And offered rhythmic reminders Through healing waters.

I turned a corner into a narrow street Only to turn another that opened Into to a valley situated between high-rises.

At the end a third wall Led us into a room inside a room under the sky That opened up from dark corridors of solitude To a room where the sun accompanied us as we prayed.

On my way out, I climbed on to a walk in the sky Above the living trees of this valley Passing the windows of the high-rises And looking ahead.

NEIGHBORHOOD YOUNGSTER Late evening 2030

As I run out of my house and down the stairs To reunite with friends and dive into the park, I cross the wall that separates me from it And hop across the path lined with young trees.

On a hot day, my feet rest under them But every day someone or the other Spends seconds or minutes or hours Chatting with these greens that are being fueled by their loved ones From underneath.

The curvy paths of the park Divide it into sections that sometimes surround Rooms with shimmering glass.

Here, we slow down And occasionally talk about our days.

After the sun goes down, they feel like little museums of glass With names of strangers in unknown alphabets.

Some walls are tall.

The sound of water makes me peek But I know not to go beyond them For someone is praying for the one they lost, Like my family did last summer.

Sometimes I walk back home through the skywalk Because it rises and falls like the hills That I fancy climbing up and rolling down.

As I run out of my house and down the stairs To reunite with friends and dive into the park, I cross the wall that separates me from it And hop across the path lined with young trees.

On a hot day, my feet rest under them But every day someone or the other Spends seconds or minutes or hours Chatting with these greens that are being fueled by their loved ones From underneath.

Sometimes I walk back home through the skywalk Because it rises and falls like the hills That I fancy climbing up and rolling down.

VISITOR Mid-morning 2050

Here after years, I walk in through a wide entrance Into a somewhat familiar valley That seems to have grown like living a beast Since I was last here.

The trees have risen Not just in height but also in number Turning this valley into a forest Of the intermingling spirits Of all who arrived here lifeless.

I can’t fully remember Where my beloved is resting.

I step down the path of sand Onto the shaded grassy ground So I am surrounded by named trees.

I pass through many names Before I chance upon the one I’m looking for And place memorabilia on the platform dedicated to her.

We talk before I leave To step on a tiled path that leads to A piece of glass with the engraved alphabets of her name.

I rest in the light of one of the rooms Which surround these panels That descend from the ceiling but never touch the ground.

There amongst a growing community of names, She rests.

On my way out, on the sandy path again, I catch a glimpse of a family walking in with a corpse.

The rooms that I remember praying and waiting in Seem to be walled off from The noises of the every day park.

The path itself is lined with trees.

I was welcomed into this park by the dead And they are the ones who see me off.

The trees have risen Not just in height but also in number Turning this valley into a forest Of the intermingling spirits Of all who arrived here lifeless.

I can’t fully remember Where my beloved is resting.

I step down the path of sand Onto the shaded grassy ground So I am surrounded by named trees.

I pass through many names Before I chance upon the one I’m looking for And place memorabilia on the platform dedicated to her.

On my way out, on the sandy path again, I catch a glimpse of a family walking in with a corpse.

The rooms that I remember praying and waiting in Seem to be walled off from The noises of the every day park.

The path itself is lined with trees.

I was welcomed into this park by the dead And they are the ones who see me off.

ELEMENTS OF PLACE

Customs and climate of the site informed materiality and spatial qualities.

Sandstone is a readily available local resource.

Across cultures and religions, it is considered polite in the Indian context to take the shoes off before entering pristine places. The stone would combat the dry north Indian heat, and it is the only material the feet come in contact with. It is easy on the skin.

The sequence of events is guided by local customs. Prayer and contemplation are followed by preparing the body for burial. After the burial, if the family chooses to memorialize the departed, they install a transparent panel in their name in a memorial.

The spatial qualities of these rooms were a result of climate conditions. These tall rooms with high windows for ventilation made the body and room operate at distinctly different scales.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE

Two paths One leading in and one out, One sunk into the ground and one elevated, One marked by rhythmic appearances of water And one with woods.

One offers time to be devastated One, to regroup.

PRAYER

PREPARATION

REMEMBRANCE

A room in a courtyard Sunk into the ground With windows above human height Shining a thick beam of light upon the grieving And two spotlights on the departed.

Two rooms Reached by rising above the ground.

One for getting the departed ready for their next form of life One for the accompanists to wait.

The waiting are elevated Just enough to get a window Into the process of preparation.

Many little rooms For moments of pause or rest in anybody’s day Together holding up beams that carry Memories of the departed.

The memories are written upon transparent panels, So as to reflect light differently all day.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE

Location

Two paths One leading in and one out, One sunk into the ground and one elevated, One marked by rhythmic appearances of water And one with woods.

One offers time to be devastated One, to regroup.

Entry

Exit

PRAYER ROOM

Location

A room in a courtyard Sunk into the ground With windows above human height Shining a thick beam of light upon the grieving And two spotlights on the departed.

PREPARATION ROOM

Location

Two rooms Reached by rising above the ground.

One for getting the departed ready for their next form of life One for the accompanists to wait.

The waiting are elevated Just enough to get a window Into the process of preparation.

REMEMBRANCE ROOMS

Location

Many little rooms For moments of pause or rest in anybody’s day Together holding up beams that carry Memories of the departed.

The memories are written upon transparent panels, So as to reflect light differently all day.

Could identity be represented through color?

STUDIES

LINEARITY AND CIRCULARITY

The interaction of two distinct systems presents various possibilities of manifestation and perception. Immediately, the potentials of both systems collide and the permutations are doubled.

This series looked first at the overlay of linear and circular systems as an analogy for real time and perceived time. Later, a planar manifestation of the overlay became one that didn’t belong to either system.

NATURE OF ADJACENCY

A room in every house

A moment at very entrance

A place for all households

A garden for every house

Reminder of death and life on either side

An entrance for non-residents

Water as a means of rest

A degree of separation with outsiders

A separate entrance for community dwellers

Life and death are adjacent We have developed a tendency to hide the reality of death from daily life.

This study looked at the ways to integrate the treatment and resting of the dead with residences for the living.

The site on the outskirts of New Delhi where the project is proposed mimics the qualities of these initial diagrams. A densely populated set of residential complexes presently shares a park. The intervention is proposed in this park.

ABOVE AND BELOW

The spatial qualities of a place of remembrance could utilize natural elements to articulate moments of pause.

In this study, light, smoke, and water are used along with compression and release between the elements that are above and below.

From the drawings, a quality of light emerged that I wanted to explore through a built model. These qualities later presented themselves in the prayer room of the designed cemetery.

MEANS OF MEMORY

How might the memory of a life be preserved?

The following is a series of attempts at having a form of memory descend from the ceiling plane, but never touch the ground plane. This gesture elevates the value of the memory from other living entities in the room.

A faceless cube in the name of each departed body.

A community of urns resting together.

A transparent panel with the names of all departed members of a family or community.

With the passage of the day, the shadows of these names float throughout the room as per the movement of the sun.

PROCESSES AND CULTURE

The adjacency of the everyday activity of the city with a solemn event in someone’s life guided the early days of this study. This made filters and moments of in-between essential.

In the Hindu tradition, the procession is an important aspect of the activities leading to the cremation of a body. Carrying the body through the city, family and friends chant prayers in remembrance.

A crematorium was not designed in this project and this spatial quality did not present itself in the project.

Before burial, the body is cleansed and covered in a shroud or in clothing. Like in the earlier studies, the surface on which the body rests never touches the ground. It descends from the ceiling. This particular spatial study did manifest itself in the final form of the preparation room in the project.

REFERENCES

LESSONS FROM HISTORY

1: A place of rest for the eyes and body 2: . Stone surfaces on a warm day British Council in New Delhi by Charles Correa 3: Walls framing water and sky House in Ahmedabad by Rahul Mehrotra and Associates 4: The entrance as an event House in Ahmedabad by Rahul Mehrotra and Associates 5: Metal and rain Copper House by Studio Mumbai 6: A piece of sky inside the house Copper House by Studio Mumbai 7: Healing through a tree Bruton Boatyard Hotel by Karl Damschen 8: Source of shade descending from the ceiling House in Chennai by Bijoy Jain

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ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

• Correa, Charles. A place in the shade: the new landscape and other essays. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2012.

• Gast, Klaus-Peter. Modern Traditions Contemporary Architecture in India. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2007.

• Jain, Bijoy. Rooms you may have missed. Place of publication not identified: Lars Muller Publishers, 2015.

My parents and uncle have been my first teachers.

Their love and regular reality checks kept me afloat.

My teachers Cathi and Steven House, Susan Piedmont-Palladino, and Paul Emmons left indelible impressions on my education with their knowledge - all within the last two years.

My thesis advisor Aki Ishida fostered an environment of mutual respect and accountability within a studio of eight very different personalities.

The members of SCOPE and their stubbornness to look at design through political and social lenses gave me hope throughout the year.

Tommy, Charlotte, Anuja, Tara, Shayna, Ge, Luke, and Austin accompanied me through daily meals, major disappointments, small successes and critical discussions about the work.

I dedicate this book to my friends Will Scott and Zichun Huang.

They gave me the courage to look at the world through my own faulty eyes.

tamutiku@vt.edu 540-200-5546 School of Architecture + Design Virginia Tech