Death & Regeneration

Cemeteries are one of the most toxic landscapes in modern cities. There’s a huge amount of carbon emission in the process of cremation and the long-term cemeteries maintenance, as well as the intensive use of resources. Not to mention the amount of toxins that got released during cremation and the burial. Other greener alternatives require extensive land which is simply not practical in urban Sydney. ‘Culturally and socially and physically, people are being pushed further and further away from death’. According to DPIE, all currently operational cemeteries in Sydney are expected to close to new burials in 10-12 years. Actions such as shortening tenure and building more cemeteries are still within the constraints of the traditional cemetery model. The project site is located in Rozelle Bay with a history of death of its own: there was the first public abattoir in the colony for over 70 years. The site is now one of the last working harbours in Sydney, injecting billions into Sydney’s economy each year. On the flip side, the site is currently dominated by harbour workers with minimum public life and limited waterfront public accessibility. What if cemetery landscape shares the urban space with the public life and working marina in a healthy and meaningful way? Death & Regeneration explores new forms of internment and cemetery model. It explores how we can bring life into the landscape of death: public life, local flora and fauna, micro-organism, with a lens of regeneration and a staged low-carbon approach.