life support by jeremy doherty from singapore

• Increased amount of people choosing cremation over traditional burials
• Land availability diminishing
• Coral reefs and life sources that live therein needing support and having a great propensity to flourish given the opportunity
• High amount of the world’s population live in areas close by the world’s coral reefs, these reefs mainly being located between 30 degrees North and South of the equator.

These four factors are the driving principles behind the idea for "Life Support".

For centuries water has played a pivotal role within all parts of human life, be it at birth, during life in recreational, commercial or other activities as well as playing a role in burial rituals. It was a custom in the South Pacific to place the body in a canoe and to send it off on the water. In Western society, water burial is most often carried out for a person who perished at sea, or as a special honor for high-ranking officers in the Navy. The act of water burial is an ancient custom that some feel has lost a part of its meaning over time. The original meaning can be found somewhere between myth and imagination. Previously water was seen as a link to immortality, which explains why it became a part of burial traditions. Many believed that water had the power to bring people back to life. It is this myth we look to explore in creating Life Support

As an increasing number of people are choosing cremation over a traditional burial we seek here to provide a steel structure to house multiple urns in an underwater environment. The structure follows a basic six-sided footprint of which the frame can be easily expanded or contracted based on the specific environment or size required. Vertical poles are then inserted into the points of the hexagons of which multiple five-point urn holders are fixed. Based on an organic design taken from the natural look of coral, the urn holder is designed to blend into the environment. In time the entire space frame and urn holders will become covered by the beautiful natural environment of a coral reef allowing people to choose to have their final resting place in a peaceful environment, surrounded by an entire ecosystem constantly evolving and changing based on the Life Support system their final resting place provides.

The urn holders are designed with a mechanism to keep the urn locked into place and each urn is made of two steel pieces that screw together to hold the ashes of the deceased safe inside. The urn can be engraved with the deceased details should they wish and the lid is equipped with a GPS device so that family or loved ones may easily find it using a hand held device when diving or snorkeling to visit the resting place.