FORMING A PERSPECTIVE

A common solution to solve the problems of finding space to house remains is the use of columbarium. When a person has been cremated, the remains are placed in a small pot and rather than being placed in a grave are stacked on shelves and usually covered with a plaque of some kind. Originally the name applied to the compartmentalised housing used for doves and pigeons in country homes, but today the typology tends towards simple storage, however well intentioned. At Bundang Memorial Park something more considered has been formed.

HIERARCHY OF SPACE

At Bundang Memorial Park something more considered has been formed. The graveside is a personal moment, at whatever point in the grieving process one is at. While the collumbarium format is inherently collective it is not necessarily impersonal. Bundang's sun-rooms are sized to allow the personal moment, left open to the sky to maintain a connection to the landscape, and the little table provided to mediate the relationship between the grieving and the grieved.

Each movement outwards from the graveside, moves closer through a series of liminal spaces back towards the living - solitude to community.

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP

CONNECTED

THROUGH LANDSCAPE

SEPARATED YET

RELATED

EVENTUALLY TO THE LIVING

Each step outwards offers a view back to the larger picture, yet is separated from it - by slope, by terrace, by wall. The bereaved enters a cemetery locked into the continued relationship with the deceased, but as they leave, their connection to society is rebuilt, by presenting the possibility of an empathy. First, this empathy is limited to those sharing the immediate vicinity, by stepping away from the graveside, then to the cemetery at large, from a place between the two, then to the city, from the slopes of the mountain.