Hetul Vasani

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Currently, the environment of death supports the infrastructures of cremation remain disjointed from the urban landscape. Cremation and its
associated spaces serve both utilitarian and spiritual means, but suffer from a lack of recognisable spatial characteristics that allow for a wide variety of
funerary rites to be performed within them. Taking inspiration from different global funerary customs and rituals, this thesis posits that there is a
fundamental social need to reintroduce ceremony and urban vitality to cremation spaces. The thesis reevaluates the prevailing trend of separating the
living and the dead, and instead argues for bringing cremation to the fore front of urban space, merging landscapes of committal and contemplation. Eschewing a traditional design approach, different elements such as urban and visually prominent vertical columbaria would be proposed to allow death to
be more readily contemplated and recognised throughout the urban landscape.