Take me to the river: an exploration of bringing the dead home

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Date
2015
Authors
Tustin, Michelle
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Abstract
In contemporary North America, death is often responded to by means of geographical and social separation. Formally removed from the everyday lifeworld and boundaries of home and community, the cemetery landscape has depreciated greatly in its cultural significance and visible taking care. As changing death practices and perceptions towards mortality look to reintegrate the dead back into the living community, traditional ways of locating, memorializing and ritualizing the dead no longer reflect or express the meaning of death held by modern cultural ideals. This research looks to investigate how landscape architecture may re-imagine the cemetery landscape providing newfound cultural significance and presence within the modern everyday lifeworld. In the City of Brandon, Manitoba, the limited interment capacity of the current Municipal cemetery has established a need for expanded cemetery space. This practicum proposes rather, to relocate the cemetery within a place of meaningful significance to the community of Brandon. The design responds to the shifting ideals, and patterns of disposal and ritualization emerging within present western society.
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landscape architecture, architecture, cemetery, design, death, grief, cremation, burial, memory, identity, Manitoba, Brandon
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