Tears of Joy for Stunning Funeral Chapel Design

My heart nearly fell over on itself and started weeping tears of joy when I came across this stunning funeral chapel. Much like the PInoso funeral home in Spain, the Chapel of St. Lawrence in Vantaa, Finalnd gives me hope that in small pockets around the globe, architects and designers are moving the spaces in which we publicly gather and grieve into modern times. 

Designed by Avanto Architects, the buildings clean lines and natural materials such as wood and slate, simplify the surroundings and create a serene frame in which to mourn. The functionality has been described on Denzeen:

The experience of the mourner was the basis for the design process. The funeral is a unique and taxing event, and for it to go well and without disturbance is of the utmost importance. The architecture of the chapel is designed to assist the mourner, giving space for grief. The people attending the funeral follow a route through a series of sacral spaces, punctuated by intermediate rooms – along the route there is a continuous skylight. The intermediate spaces prepare the visitors for the next phase of the funeral. It is very silent in the chapel; the acoustics and ventilation have been designed especially with this in mind.

More information on the project can be found here architonic.com

Moving Through Grief, Chair by Chair - NYT Modern Love

by Avery Corman

Published in The New York Times on March 15th, 2012

A MISCONCEPTION among some people is that I wrote the novel “Kramer vs. Kramer” based on my own divorce and custody battle. “How is she doing with his son?” a woman once asked a friend of ours about my wife. Our friend answered, “They have two sons and they’re both hers.”

I was never divorced. My wife, Judy, and I were married 37 years, my only marriage and her only marriage. In our early years, like many would-be writers, I tried to cobble together an income. So after the success of “Kramer vs. Kramer,” when a reporter interviewing me brought up my marital status, I said: “My wife and I never would have gotten a divorce. We never would have been able to figure out who would get custody of the anxiety.”

Judy died in 2004. She was a brilliant public relations strategist who in her last job, at Scholastic, masterminded the publicity for the introduction and publication of the Harry Potter books. Everything you first read and heard in the media about Harry Potter came through her. She was also incomparable at finding things — for our apartment in Manhattan, for our vacation home in Water Mill, N.Y., for friends’ homes. People loved to go antiquing with her.

Gabriel Orozco - Obit

Last year I caught Gabriel Orozco's excellent exhibit at the Tate modern and am thrilled that I finally have a relevant place to share his Obit installation. Working from real obituaries, he extracts interesting or funny sentences of what a person did in their life. There are no names, just a prolific collection of one-liners such as "Master of lightbulbs" or "Once known as a rival to Shirley Temple." As he says in the video, memorials are mostly lists of names, but when you turn that list into small bytes about who that person actually was or what they achieved it becomes so much more compelling.

Back up slowly and walk away...

Much to the chagrin of my productivity, Pinterest and I seem to be getting along 

like a house on fire.

Vivienne Westwood - Love + Death Cufflinks

I think everyone who wears cufflinks most definitely needs a pair of these

www.viviennewestwood.co.uk

Origami Funeral Cranes and Dolls

I can almost 100% guarantee that when you hear news about a friend or family members death, making origami will be pretty far down on the list of things to think about, let alone actually do. But wait a minute!  Don't write off a little time spent paper folding just yet, it might be just the thing you need to calm a worried or confused mind while creating a thoughtful condolence gift.

What the Psychic Knew - NYT Modern Love

by Marcia DeSanctis

Published in the New York Times on March 8, 2012

YEARS ago — panicked, on the cusp of 30, between jobs and wondering where life would take me — I consulted a psychic. I remember staring at the sea of green carpet in her home as she addressed the usual concerns.

She told me to marry Mark, the man I was living with, that I would have a son and a daughter, and that my future with them would not be in New York City, contrary to what I had long assumed.

Finally, I asked the question I really wanted answered: “When will I die?”

Dreamy Necropolis of the Future

Miro Rivera Architects create a magical, futuristic necropolis proposal called Yarauvi - 

From World Architecture News:

Death and humans’ response to it have long held the power to bind cultures together and create places that transcend time and custom. Our collective respect for the dead and where they are laid to rest reaches across cultures like few other human experiences. It is the commonality of this reverence that guides the creation of Yarauvi, a necropolis at the centre of the Dead Sea.

Do You Have Any Dirty Digital Laundry?

This video is an odd way to promote a company specializing in finding life insurance but it does ask an important question: what happens online when you die? 
Although that question is only vaguely answered, because it's really too broad, they do give us some interesting statistics and may have you running for the delete button with this one:
Do you have any dirty digital laundry you should be worried about? 

Facing Death with Equanimity

 Cemetery in Aleppo, Syria

Volkswagon Beetle in Homs, Syria

I took these photos when traveling through Syria in the spring of 2008. The people I had met and who helped me get from point A to point B safely were incredibly hospitable and kind, and yet all the while the regime hung over the country like a dark cloud. Ironically I found a VW Bug - a symbol of peace - parked on a side street in the city of Homs. Watching the recent events unfolding there has been disturbing and heartbreaking. Paul Conroy, the British Sunday Times photographer who survived after being wounded and trapped in Babr Amr, said this of the FSA fighters who risked their lives to smuggle him out of the country:

"It was the rebels' ability to face death with equanimity that gave them their strength. They'd accepted that they weren't going to get out alive. It's a way of taking power away from a brutal regime. I saw the same thing in Libya. A government has power over you as long as you are afraid it will kill you. Once you accept your fate and come to believe that if you survive, it will be a bonus, you have the power to achieve extraordinary things."

A Digital Cemetery

Cemetery by Kevin Van Aelst

Loving this digital cemetery by Kevin Van Aelst - very clever indeed.

Dying in Amsterdam - What A Lovely Idea

 De Nieuwe Ooster columbarium

De Nieuwe Ooster columbarium

Ger Frits from The Lonely Funeral

De Nieuwe Ooster and The Lonely Funeral

Also check out the sympathyproject.com

If your planning on dying, you might want to consider doing it in Amsterdam. Not only for the stylish cemetery you could rest in, but, if your lacking next of kin, the city will provide you with flowers, music AND write you a poem. Sounds good to me.

In 2001, the landscape/architecture firm karres and brands gave the centuries old Dutch cemetery De Nieuwe Ooster a brand new look and the result is simply beautiful. From the lilly ponds and slightly stacked grave markers to the modern columbarium, this cemetery is definitely a chic destination - if your planning to die that is. 

karresenbrands.nl

denieuweooster.nl

Click here for extensive photos

The Lonely Funeral

From the BBC Global Perspective Documentary Series

Listen to the full documentary here (HIGHLY recommended): bbc.co.uk

From the BBC:

Every year up to 20 people die completely alone in Amsterdam. There are no friends or family to prepare their funeral or mourn over the body. Sometimes these people are illegal migrants, drug mules, or simply people who for one reason or another, cut off all social contacts.

A civil servant and a poet come together in their shared determination that those who die alone have a respectful and personal funeral.
For 20 years Ger Frits has chosen music to play at what have become known as "lonely funerals". He puts flowers on the coffin and accompanies each person to their final resting place.