A Change of State: Water Cemetery for the Unclaimed
A Change of State: Water Cemetery for the Unclaimed
Team : Stuti Bindlish Margaret Jane Geis Instructor: John Ronan Year: 2022
Location: Chinatown Chicago, USA Phase: Analysis and concept
Introduction
"A Change of State: Water Cemetery for the Unclaimed" is a ritual-driven endeavor. For three hundred sixty-four days annually, the site operates as both a memorial and a park. However, as the sun sets on the shortest day of the year, December 22nd, a barge descends upon the memorial. Volunteers gather to guide 200 ice urns through a shallow pool to a corten steel plate frame, serving as the final transition site for the remains and souls of the unclaimed. As the sun dips below the horizon, the urns illuminate, and the corten steel frame initiates the melting of the ice. Water remains a steadfast companion, overseeing the perpetual changes of state for both the deceased and the living within this Water Cemetery for the Unclaimed.
Site Theme: Change of State
Inspired by a site parcel in the industrial heart of Chinatown in downtown Chicago, this project utilizes water as a primary material to create a lasting memorial and resting place for the numerous unclaimed bodies that find their way here each year. Serving as a symbolic guide from the commencement to the culmination of the journey for unclaimed souls and remnants in transition, water emerges as a connecting and partnering element. Visitors to this cemetery embark on a cyclical journey of introspection, navigating through the contraction and expansion zones on the site, marked by continuous corten steel walls accompanying the living.
Location and justification
Taking the melting of the ice urn on the corten steel plate as a starting point, our exploration delves into how corten steel material inherently captures states of change. In the presence of water, corten steel undergoes a chemical and visual transformation, transitioning from a smooth grey to a rusty red. This material becomes a metaphor for water, symbolizing the cyclical and eternal journey of state changes. While water manifests changes in the short term (days and hours), corten steel reflects changes over the long term (years and decades). From a site perspective, vegetation serves as a seasonal marker of change.
Burial System: Ossuary
Water serves as a vessel accompanying the departed throughout their journey to the afterlife. Post-mortem, water initiates the aqua cremation process, gently transforming the body through continuous washing, ultimately reducing it to clean bones. These bones are then placed in a two-foot ice urn, symbolizing the transition to an after-death state. The ice urns undergo a third state change on corten steel plates, transitioning from ice to steam, releasing the soul as the smoke ascends and the revealed bones return to the earth. This entire process signifies the soul's departure from the body.
Shape of the water cemetery & relationship with the river
The water cemetery pool, designed explicitly for the ritual, takes the form of a spatialized semi-circle, resembling a broken circle. When perceived as a complete circle, it serves as the visible realm accommodating receptiveness, reflection, emotions, and memories. Simultaneously, the river embodies the unseen or empty segment of the circle, fostering the unknown, imagination, and journeys into the beyond. Positioned atop the ghats' steps, attendees can observe the interconnectedness of the water cemetery and the river, where the semi-circles seamlessly merge, erasing distinctions between life and death, viewer and deceased. Mirroring the fluid states of change experienced by both water and the soul, the water cemetery serves as a transition from life to death and back to life, embodying eternal continuity.
Ritual
As the sun sets on the year's longest night, a barge carrying 200 unclaimed deceased individuals sails along the Chicago River. Dozens of volunteers gather at the dock to carry the two square foot ice urn remains from the barge to a nearby shallow pool water cemetery. As the sun dips below the horizon and the last ice urn is placed, the tiered landscape in the surrounding area fills with spectators ready to witness the coming ritual. All two hundred ice urns glow vibrantly, signaling the change of state ritual. As the corten platforms slowly heat the ice, columns of steam rise above the ice urns. The crowd watches as the steam dissipates into the darkened sky and the brightening ice urns slowly start to shrink. The ice then melts beyond the pool's waterline, indicating that the deceased's remains have been returned to the earth in the ossuary below. The last rites of the unclaimed are over, the soul has been liberated, and the body has transitioned. But the water has remained and will continue to remain. The water will continue to be the companion for the change of state for the non-living and living.
Site Strategy
The site is defined as a journey of introspection by creating moments of expansion and compression marked by the corten steel, and the shallow pool holding the ice urns is spatialized specifically for the ritual as a semi-circle.
Inspired by the industrial nature of the area, we decided to use corten steel sheets to level the site. It starts with hammering corten sheets into the ground between each level and then leveling the site through different excavation cut and fill pursuers. After that, walls are leveled and will function as bearing walls, steps, or even partitions.
Site Plan
Visitors enter the site at the southwest corner and are received in a plaza that connects the site to its urban edge, where they are invited to join the change of state processional through a corten steel arched frame. They enter a secluded area bounded by corten steel walls and then transition to an open field surrounded by moments of respite integrated within the corten steel plate perimeter. As they move ahead, visitors follow the slope to a green-roofed covered courtyard where a single viewing lookout acts as a moment of contemplation. The journey of introspection takes the visitors into an empty open courtyard where the river washes past corten/plasters and onto the shoreline. The water cemetery is slowly revealed to the visitors through the last corten frame, and they are invited to stay on the ghat steps to view the ritual. As a final transition, there is a secluded memorial space for the unclaimed, giving the city's people a chance to remember.
364 days of the year, the site acts as a park/memorial.
