Cenotaph for the Modern Man by mahmoud riad from usa

In facing his own mortality, man conquered his fears by allowing himself to believe that death is but a transition into another realm. The structures he has built to honor the dead become portals to transport the soul to the heavens in the arms of his creator. The surviving architecture has become an important reminder of man’s fate and a symbol for his quest for eternal transcendence.

With the surge of ecological technologies in the 21st century, burials have become biodegradable to allow man to flow into the earth and live forever as a constant biological cycle of growth and decay. Upon his demise, man (along with some plant seeds) is dug into the soil, where his cells become nutrients for plant and tree growth. This allows cemeteries to turn into forests of trees along the years past, transforming the depressing row of tombstones into a new habitat for ecology.

However, with the available new sustainable technology, man misses the architectural connection that perpetuates his belief in a higher power. The following proposal attempts to intersect the idea of a biodegradable burial into an architectural envelope that suggests a sublime connection between man and his creator. Taking homage from Boule’s Cenotaph to Newton, the Cenotaph for the Modern Man is a domed space, with the grave marked in the center. A tree grows from the centerpoint of the grave, which soaks up its light from an oculus on top of the dome. The entire structure is rotated 15 degrees towards the south (the north is southern hemispheres), to allow more sunlight to spill into the space. This rotation also allows visitors to slightly lose their orientation within the dome, maintaining it’s position as a transitional space that links souls from this world to the other.