Ascension Tower by Astrid Suzano from portugal

Ascension tower
This proposal addresses the need to tackle the following questions:
. How can we reduce the space needed to store the dead?
. How does the use of these spaces help grieving and remembering the dead?
. How can those spaces be: personal, private, peaceful, magical, introspective, quiet and contemplative and at the same time public, part of the city and of the society?
. How do we deal with death and dying?

Cremation might be preferable for environmental reasons, as, over the years it has become greener. Moreover, it reduces the size of the corpse from that of a coffin to that of a small box. Therefore it is easy to imagine how much space we could save by stacking many small boxes on top of each other. Now imagine you stack them in such a height that it becomes a tower, a memory tower and an ascension tower.
By doing this, an icon to the city is also created!
This tower will be a landmark that celebrates the dead and the living.

It is common to have these areas of bereavement and remembrance on the outskirts of the city and usually not only because of the huge area needed for a cemetery but also because these are not places people enjoy visiting or living close by.
It’s necessary to invert this tendency.
As now there is a much smaller footprint, it is possible to bring the cemetery to the city center. It’s mandatory to do so in order to have our loved ones closer.
It’s important to make the dead present in our daily life. This is a positive manner to contradict how we deal with death and dying.
To have the tower accessible physically or visually from many parts of the city will influence the way we grieve and remember the dead.

This tower will not only be an icon and a city landmark but will also represent: respect, privacy, contemplation and introspection, life and death. It will be a place you want to be near to or inside of.
The interior has a very magical and special character. It can be seen as a vertical garden: as a “Tree of Life” or as the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon”.

The access to the tower is made through the ground floor, where a small chapel is placed. From there we go up to a 1st level, with a garden of roses. This garden is also a place where people can burry the ashes (through the process of promession), for those who prefer to be among nature.
The exterior wall is where all the urns are. People can go up the tower, by a round stairs next to the urns. While going up some in between levels will appear and in those areas there are smaller scale spaces where it’s possible to sit and stay in peace and quiet. Those are contemplation bays where you can privately be with your loved ones. Many trees are placed along the tower, creating a vertical garden that ends at a roof top garden.
The way the light comes in will give a mystical and magical aspect to the interior. Small windows, painted in golden color on it’s interior, are located in a very sensitive way in order to create an interior sunray effect and also to guarantee natural light to all the interior trees and green areas.
In sum, there are 3 possible ways of resting inside the Tower: inside a small box on the wall (cremation), among the trees and plants or in the garden of roses (promession).

The façade of the tower is coated with translucent golden plates. This material will give a shinning effect during the day and will catch solar energy to allow the same effect by night. As the plates can be individually switched and controlled by computer, the Ascension Tower can also be used for musical and light shows at night.

The exterior of the tower will be like a shining star at night and day while the interior will be a vertical garden that represents the Ascension to Heaven.