Death in Architecture

Mortem Obire – Confronting Death
The Poetics of Silence, Light, Healing, and Truth in Architecture

A NON-DENOMINATIONAL FUNERARY CHAPEL
Mt. Vernon Square, Washington D.C.

Designers: Brandon Ro | Michael Steinmetz | Brigid Wright
Advisors: Julio Bermudez | Juhani Pallasmaa | Greg Upwall

Death in Architecture
Life is a journey. Often life is a swinging pendulum that can appear to deny emotional stasis. Our emotions are often driven by the oppositions we encounter. Consequently, the experiences of life are often viewed as tensions, polarities, and contrasts and range in form: ups and downs, sickness and health, pain and pleasure, despair and hope, loss and recovery, noise and silence. The common heritage of existence leads us to face the greatest polarity of being in the world: life and death.

Mortem Obire is the Latin phrase meaning "meet death." Death is an inevitable experience in life’s journey that all will confront at some time or another; however, the experience and perception of death is interpreted differently by each person. For many, death is the ultimate “question mark” that acknowledges the unknown. Others may view it as an “exclamation point” signifying the termination of existence beyond what is known. Some, however, may view death as a mere “comma mark” representing the metaphysical continuation of life.

Many have come to acknowledge that architecture can transform human beings and mankind's understanding of the world. Thus, it is from an architectural perspective that the topic of death leads us to ask several questions: What is the role of architecture in loss and recovery? How can architecture shape, transform, and change people encountering death? How can space, matter, light, and silence promote healing? How can the "sacred" manifest itself in a "profane" or secular driven urban setting? How can architecture convey existential knowledge and truth to a multi-faith, multi-cultural audience? How do designers commemorate the dead while simultaneously comforting the living?

It is the purpose of this design to demonstrate that architecture must surrender its ego-centricity and become a selfless manifestation of existential knowledge and truth. In this way, architecture may transcend the worldly (profane) to become atmospheres of the otherworldly (sacred). To this end, architecture may transcend its utilitarianism and turn its focus to promoting healing, serenity, and existential transcendence.


Concept + Procession + Emotions
The process of designing a non-denominational funerary chapel began with a series of study models that transformed as the building shifted from an urban contextual response to a religious symbolic gesture and experience. Ultimately, the design came to highlight the three distinct zones of program. In the north, the wooden structure with a vegetation screen contains the administration programs while the southern austere, horizontal stone slats hold the columbarium. The chapel serves as the site’s crowning gesture; the translucent, stone skin highlights its significance on the site and in the immediate area.

The most guiding metaphorical and organizational principle of our project is the notion of axis-mundi and the ascending ziggurat ramp. The axis-mundi is a central organizing node that forms a primordial center connecting heaven, earth, and the afterlife and is experienced through the various processes of mourning, melancholy, healing, and transcendence. The ramp that envelopes the buildings serves as a binding archetypal mound referencing the ancient architecture of the ziggurat.

The incorporation of the ziggurat allows the patron to circumambulate around the central axis-mundi in a ritual ascent and sacred pilgrimage. The tethering ziggurat path, thus, unifies the dead with the living. As the patron reaches the chapel, he or she is symbolically united with the departed and divine. After the funeral ceremony in the chapel, one continues through the ambulatory to the columbarium where one is confronted with a ritualistic procession of departure. This is represented in the steady and regular rhythm of monolithic vertical slabs containing niches that serve as the final resting place of the dead.

The entire journey to the columbarium (realm of the afterlife) becomes accessible only through the specific procession of the ramps. This design feature is meant to mirror the moment in our lives when death claims someone we love. The intense emotions that come with such an experience are identified as sacred and respectfully expressed through the architecture.

Context + Seasons + Materiality
Rather than relying on cues from the dross of commercial development that is prevalent in the immediate area, the design addresses how materials can change and decay over time to evoke emotion. Manifestations of time are apparent in the aging process of architectural materials inevitably helping the tectonics speak to humanity's short mortal existence. Thus, the material palette helps to strengthen the seasonal changes, solar cycles, and emotional stages of life.

The aim of the project seeks to create an oasis of silence through materiality, a place that ultimately evokes contemplation and repose within a bustling, noisy urban context. In this light, the smooth, horizontal stone slabs in the columbarium walls reinforce the austerity and calmness of winter while representing the solemn process of mourning. The wood siding and steel lattice enveloping the administration building encourage vegetative growth in the spring and summer while similarly conveying vitality, warmth, healing, and spiritual growth to visitors. The exterior skin of the chapel is clad in thin Amber Onyx stone panels that are semi-transparent which permit sunlight to penetrate during the day and transform into glowing, inviting jewels at night. While the interior skin of the chapel consists of wood paneling and horizontal louvers in order to provide a sense of comfort and familiarity, it is here that all materials are united. In this sense, the chapel not only represents the heavenly realm but becomes the place of reconciliation, mystery, and healing. The last element weaving the tectonics together is the perforated copper panel system that encapsulates the ziggurat ramps. The copper best demonstrates the aging process of time with its beautiful, sheen oxidation aesthetic of green patina. Either the funerary procession or the ritual ascent to the columbarium along the ramps is a unique experience. The design keeps patrons in constant contact with the changing materials as they ascend to confront death and healing.

The orientation of the buildings gives the design additional significance for both astroarchitectural phenomena and religious symbolism. For instance, the chapel is ideally situated to allow the warming eastern morning sunlight to penetrate and convey a sense of regeneration, resurrection, rebirth, and renewal; meanwhile, the western central void and opening in the columbarium allows the seasons to pervade the interior while also establishing an axis with the sunset evoking death symbolism.

Regardless of one’s religious or metaphysical beliefs, notions of one's mortality can be interpreted in innumerable ways. Nevertheless, perhaps there is an architecture that may lead to a deeper ontological understanding of the world by appealing to bodily and sensory experience through the poetics of materiality and spatial experience. "Mortem Obire" is a project that helps individuals confront death while dealing with the poetics of silence, light, healing, and truth in architecture.

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