remember me by alsRaumstueck from austria

What does death mean today? All through history death always played an important role in society and the way how people got interred distinguished our cultural heritage. But how should funerals and memorialization look like in a society, which is in continuos change? A society, which is embossed by fast shifts and steady transformation. A society that defines itself by global networks and acquaintances. Especially compared to former cultures, the 21st century is formed by the fact that through different medias our society gets more and more cross-linked. The fact that everybody knows everyone through at least seven other people shows how strongly connected we are today.

The way people are connected also defines how people will be remembered after their time on earth. Religion and personal thoughts will step back and only the person and the memory to him or her will be important. Memorialization will be detached by religion or personal attitudes - a place gets generated where everybody is welcome irregardless from his religion. A place where the boundaries between people get dissolved and intensively and personal moments connect. They connect not only the dead with the bereavement but also bereavements with themselves - a collective experience of departure and remembrance gets generated.

Our proposal is a memorial place in the middle of an urban structure, where everyone, without any limitation of background or culture, gets a place to be remembered. We chose exemplary a quite popular place in front of the Flatiron Building to anchor the topic death in everyday life. Remembrance gets placed in a new and urban context and is open for everybody. People can go there to remember their relatives, share their moments or just grieve in silence.
A structure populates the General Worth Square and is generated out of the connections people had in their former lifes. When somebody dies he gets a hypthetical point. This point then connects itself to all the other people you knew in your days on earth and enforces the net. By and by, the structure grows southwards over the whole place and is in continuous transformation. The structure gets denser and generates a place where a connection between the living and the dead is created.