In Passing
The cemetery as a temporal bridge between physical life and symbolic death
More Info
expand_more
Abstract
This thesis will examine how time-based design features in funerary architecture are manifested as architectural narratives, focusing on the experience of the visitor as they pass through the space. Accepting the transition period, from Arnold van Gennep’s Rites of Passage, as the most prominent of the funerary rites, temporal elements in architecture for death take on a significant role to determine the experience of the visitors. These temporal elements guide the visitor’s spiritual journey through the various stages of transition.
Through the analysis of a selection of case studies that all use time as a medium in their architectural elements, this thesis will attempt to reveal the entangled relationships between the passage of time and the visitor’s self-reflection. The focus on a temporal approach will be used to understand how the episodic fragments of the architecture are unified into one symbolic transitory space. The research will, therefore, examine how the use of symbolism and metaphors of death and transition from one realm to the other translates into poetic architecture that orchestrates the experience of the visitor often in a sequential manner.