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Cycles of death and memory : creating a modern funeral home

University of British Columbia

Within the context of the naturalness to which all life thrives, this thesis is concerned with the life-cycle of both humans paralled with building life as part and parcel of the other. Just as life cannot be perceived as a once through pipeline, buildings in the same breath cannot just simply be discarded without notions to how buildings can be designed differently. This is directly related to how North American society approaches the notion of the life cycle, death and the space which surrounds the disposition of the dead. The first half of this project uncovered the origins of the Canadian funeral home, the basis of the funeral home type, from the inception in the United States and Canada via a domestic Victorian precedent to the present day image. Through following funerary architecture evolution in Canada it has been surmised that it is the essence of society's funerary traditions and rituals which underpin the funeral home's space. This project expands on the spatial procession common to the Canadian funeral home as a tool to realize an alternative to architectural design. Although allowing the essence and needs of the funeral ritual to redefine the Canadian funeral home type. The project site at 100 Powell street, is located on the corner of Columbia street. Currently the old Oppenheimer building remains on half of the old land. Recently renovated it provides an in fill space that is presently acting as the parking lot for the old Oppenheimer building. The only ruminants on the project site is a two storey brick facade, as well as the three outer walls of the now demolished building. This project particularly uses the layers of time built into the site, the layers of history uncovered through research, and the knowledge of what presently exists on site. Thus it is the content of funerary space that I have uncovered in the directed studies that is extracted and played with to give form to a new urban in fill space. A space which rises out of the ruins of the old as well as reunites the surrounding relics.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-05-04

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7808

Architecture

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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