Metamorphosis Cocoon by povilas from lithuania

Metamorphosis cocoons

There is still plenty of vacant land available for the deceased. But the same cannot be said about the biggest metropolises. In the next few decades world‘s population will continue to grow exponentially resulting in no more “room for dead“ to be available in several over-crowded cities. Space for business is displacing not only the space for graveyard, but public areas are getting to be a problem as well. Governments are always in search for new ways of solving the issue of space. Most proposals are based on expansion of already existing land territories. Usually vertical expansion is chosen and eventually whole skyline is densely packed with slim skyscrapers as if the place is meant to be for business alone. With our project we tried to find an alternative solution on how to recreate balanced proportion of built territories and recreational space inside megacities. At the same time we tried to create public spaces that include a valuable multifunction. Every square meter is too precious here to serve only one purpose.

Our design proposes to integrate space for memorialization and public space. Since many mega cities are located next to waterfront of an ocean, sea, or a river bank with most of its surface still unexploited, it is certainly attractive to use this potential. We propose a flexible structure located on water surface which consists of an anchored modular terrace forming city‘s public space and several “cocoon” structures, each holding up to 900 caskets with the remains. Modular system of platforms allows creating numerous arrangements of public space. It could vary from a simple terrace along the coastline to a continuous bridge. Number of “cocoons” can vary depending on always changing needs.

The design includes a new environmentally friendly process of degrading remains of a human body as an alternative to a conventional burial. Promession is a newly introduced technology where human remains are frozen using liquid nitrogen, shattered by vibration, then subjected to a vacuum so that the ice sublimes and the powder becomes dry, thus loosing 70% of its weight. The dry powder is then purified by magnetic filters and placed in a casket together with soil, where the bacteria turns powder into compost over 10 months period.

Various vegetation are planted into the caskets and hung onto the frame structure, forming green vibrant volumes - metamorphosis cocoons - where the intersection of life and death takes place. They separate the inner repose space containing all the remains and form a vivacious picture of platform, making it a place where the living will go.