Continuum
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Abstract
As a contemporary society, we pursue sustainability to mitigate environmental unbalance. However, we rarely reflect on the temporal and cyclical nature of our existence, which exposes the premise of sustainability; continuance through mindfulness and stewardship.
Like much of the world, cities such as San Francisco have evicted the dead from the city. The displacement of cemeteries from the urban fabric threatens to conceal our temporal nature, condemning us to mindlessly dwell in the present with little concern for the wellbeing of the future. This project seeks to reverse this trend by making room for a dynamic urban cemetery that reveals the cyclical essence of our existence, emphasizing a vocation towards community in time.
Located within Golden Gate Park the program embraces a new form of death-care not only as a more ecological method, but as a medium through which to recognize the continuity of Culture through Nature. By bridging the mortality of the body with the growth of the Redwood Forest, this thesis aims to reestablish connections between individual loss and collective life to enhance the profundity of sustainability.