kanso by kairi kuuskor from estonia

Kanso - a coffin with a ritual 

Kanso is a  mass-produceable and affordable coffin for disaster and war areas.  It comes with a simple, universal and religiously neutral ritual to assure human dignity to those, who are in the severest need of it, and a healing and meaningful experience for the living. 

The coffin, made of recycled paper pulp and laminated with bio-degradable film, has an integral film pocket filled with non-toxic paint. The mourners are expected to physically interact with the coffin - to embrace and stroke it - so that the pocket breaks and paint is released between the pulp and bio-film layer, thus spreading around, creating abstract images or messages. As the paint remains between the layers, the process is not messy in any way.

The shape of the coffin is - instead of being a cold box - soft and accessible, closer to a cradle or a boat. It takes a step forward from the form logic of 19th century carpentry and Christian tradition.  Kanso's shape derives from bronze-age cult stones that have shallow hollows on top for sacrificed goods (such as grain, fabric, precious metals, etc). Technically, the most important aspects about the coffin are the possibility of low cost mass production, choice of materials that are easy on the environment, fast decomposition, stackability and light weight. In terms of ethics, it is important that Kanso should not be sorted into the categories expensive-dignified / cheap-undignified, but should stand apart from the existing traditions to create a third category: dignified through ritual and simplicity.