Date of Submission
Spring 5-3-2017
Degree Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Architecture
Department
Architecture
Committee Chair/First Advisor
Kathryn Bedette
Secondary Advisor
Mine Hashas-Degertekin
Abstract
The increase in population, rising cost of funeral expenses, and environmental “permanence” of cemeteries has increased the burden of modern American burial practices. In order to reconcile the various environmental, financial and psychological challenges of death, the architecture of death-related practices must propose sustainable alternatives of honoring and “housing” the dead. It must create a supportive environment that assists in the mourning experience and helps foster thoughts of remembrance, and goes beyond the physical function of a cemetery, or a crematorium, or a columbarium, by focusing on architecture's subliminal nature to heal, orient, and evoke.