
April 20, 2022
Future100: Students Design for Death

Funeral innovations, such as biodegradable capsules that convert bodies into fertilizer for an arboretum, tie the architecture of the Seneca Growth Complex back to the death–life cycle. Despite its otherworldly design, the students hit upon practical solutions like using EPS Geofoam to create a natural stone look underground without adding impossible stress to the labyrinthine structure.
LIGHTBRINGER (above) During the cremation process, the building’s lighting element expands and contracts to create a visual reminder of the life cycle.
Sabidussi’s classmate Yuxuan Xiong also questioned traditional mourning rituals with Lightbringer, a belowground memorial between Hudson River piers 62 and 63. He and three classmates, Bolai Ren, Yiyi Luo, and Zhongming Fang, submitted a “reverse skyscraper” to the eVolo Skyscraper Competition during the height of the pandemic. They didn’t win, but their design did raise questions about ritual and remembrance in the context of COVID-19.
In Lightbringer, mourners descend from street level down a spiral walk into a deep atrium to send off loved ones or visit cremains, while workers operate the crematorium. The furnaces’ heat powers entangled strands of eye-grabbing optic fibers above, while river water churns through the structure, protecting it from floods.
“At the time, we were in a very hard situation where we couldn’t have large gatherings,” Xiong says. “So we thought it would be nice to have something that’s large and can be seen from different angles, something that helps you think about the sort of memories that you want to cherish. This memorial sculpture allows people to heal.”
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