#gsappDeathLab

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Morning Call to Prayer_Amman, Jordan

Michelle Mortensen

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SACRED SPACE AS TRACE OF HISTORY AND CULTURE

COLUMBARIA:

We observed traces of change in the 175 year old Green-Wood cemetery's history through the change in architecture and sacred space all over Green-Wood cemetery.

We observed that the newest part of the cemetery, the community columbaria that caters with small repositories for cremated remains and photographs have pockets of small space to sit and grieve, and places to perform cultural activities (such as burning of money). This repository popular to the Chinese community has been designed for that culture -- from the bronze & jade urns, small places for burning money and coy ponds that surround the building.

MAUSOLEUM (vertical cemetery):

The next place we went is the community mausoleum, popular to the Italian community who still prefer to bury the entire body in a casket. They have imprinted ceramic photographs and flower receptacles fixed on the tombs.

CATACOMBS:

We went to the 100 year old catacombs which are 30 family mausoleums underground.  Popular to the affluent Southern Italians also had the ceramic photographs on the tombs. The space is serene -- with a different quality of light, temperature and reverberating sound.

BURIAL GROUNDS

The burial grounds scattered around the rolling hills of Green-Wood show different types of tombstones and monuments, communal grave markers and benches for rest. We observed that the tombstones are becoming more simple from the elaborate mid-1800 monuments to the simple engraved markers of more recent times.

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CULTURAL MARKERS

Different culture has their own different ceremony or mourning process.

During this field trip, we see a lot of different kind of space, each space all have their own purpose to fit different culture people. This is also why Greenwood let us feel amazing. This place not only provide different space and also mix them together, try to create the space can let people have their own special mourning space and spatial quality.

1. Space for burning money for the Chinese community outside the columbaria

2. Southern Italian imprinted ceramic photographs fixed on the face of the tombs

3. Stones placed on top of the tombstone for the Jewish.

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The edge of Green-Wood Cemetery

The cemetery, by virtue of the elevated ground from the surrounding flat community, fences and high hedges detach the dead from the living. The cemetery was purposefully designed to not let the living (even its immediate neighbors) not to engage with the "sacred ground".

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Sounds penetrate through cracks in the memorial.

The tall walls around the Roosevelt Memorial block the context of the city, but through the gaps in the wall, you can hear softer city sounds mixed with the wind and water.

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Domestic Sacred Space

Our visit to the 3 generation family funeral home, Lockwood Funeral Home in Sunset Park,  was a powerful experience to make me understand the space a family needs to grieve and let go of their loved one.

The funeral home is literally a home, where its parlor space is dedicated for the space of repose. The funeral director's job is the most sensitive because he has to deal with paperwork and logistics with a grieving family while ensuring the day of repose will be as respectful and one that honors the memory of the dead as much as possible. He provides a quiet space for the community to come in to pay their last respects before a burial. The space holds about a hundred guests. 

This trip is making me rethink what spaces for grieving and a family service needs to be to ensure providing a sacred space for a family's last moments.

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Secular & Sacred spaces

Two different memorials

Dia art foundation – Earth room

The tons of soil were located in a building at the center of the SOHO district, Manhattan’s trendy area.  Obscured from the public, people are usually not aware this quiet place exists. Entering the New York Earth Room feels like walking inside a normal apartment, then walking into a bizzare large room with nothing but 280,000 pounds of dirt.  

Light penetrates into several windows to this space and glisten the soil. The soil is knee-high and the section is shown through a thin sheet of glass that separated us from the dirt. There were no other visitors but us, making this secret secular space more powerful as an experience. The space is deafening... but walk through some doors and path and we engage back to the noise from SoHo. 

Conceptually this space allows nature and content domestic-liked pavilion. 

Meanwhile, we went to the Roosevelt Memorial... a park with trees and concrete.  Although the space is "natural" it felt more artificial.

The President Frankin D. Roosevelt Memorial by Louis Kahn

This is truly the memorial for only one person but for public use. Although it have more people noticed because it is an outdoor space and the scale, but for the accessibility, this space is hard to approach compared to the earth room and only need to use the subway or funicular ride to this island.

For me, these two spaces are all talking about frame.

On Earth room, the frame started from Soho, the secular spaces, to the stair, the narrow and the secret space, to the entrance, the door, to the earth room -- the most sacred spaces. 

On The President Frankin D. Roosevelt Memorial, there are two perspectives, deliberately controlled by architect--one is start and one is end.

And both projects are talking about the secret memorial space within the city that both block its context.