Signature Redacted Signature of Author

LIVING WITH THE DEAD MASSACHUSETTS TITUTE -OF TEC HNOLOGY by FMAR 09(Jj2017 Chenxue Wang LIBRARIES B.Arch ARCHIVES Hefei University of Technology, 2013

SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARCHITCTURE AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

FEBRUARY 2017

The author hereby grants to the MIT premission to reproduce and to distribute publicly papaer and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature redacted Signature of Author: . Department of A4&fitecture January 19, 2017 Signature redacted Certified by: Rania Ghosn, DDes Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urbanism Thesis Supervisor

Accepted by: _Signature redacted / Sheila Kennedy Professor of Architecture Chair of the Department Committee on Graduate Students Thesis Advisor

Rania Ghosn, DDes Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urbanism

Thesis Readers

William O'Brien Jr, MArch Associate Professor of Architecture

Brandon Clifford, MArch Assistant Professor of Architecture LIVING WITH THE DEAD

by Chenxue Wang

Submitted to the Department fo Architecture on January 19, 2017 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Architecture

ABSTRACT

This thesis seeks to reimagine the space for the anonymous dead in New York City by proposing a new senario for burial on Manhattan, which reconnects the alienated community and program to the heart of the city and other civic activities. The construction of the architecture proceeds as the substances transformed from human bodies accumulate. The processes of the transformation are embraced to perform new rituals for the anonymous New Yorkers. Meanwhile the architecture decays and deteriorates as its self-weight grows. Such cyclical processes continue to happen on the site. Urbanistically, the thesis argues that the status quo of anonymous burial is spatially circumscribed and finite, geographically dispelled and demographically unequal, and there's a conflict between the scarce space for the living and the dead, as part of the "ever-accumulating past" of the city. Thus attempts to generate a new urban dynamic should be made. Moreover, using death space as one incidence, the thesis intends to criticize Manhattan's habit of expelling and outsourcing unwanted infrastructual elements at the expense of sacrificing other landscapes instead of absorbing and resolving the issues. Architectrually, it challenges the typlology of a cemetery as a picturesque park that has been embraced to cover up the deceased since 18th century despite the continuous urbanization, and explores alternative configuration, materiality, spatial quality and events associated with the burial process.

Thesis Supervisor: Rania Ghosn, DDes Title: Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urbanism le LIVING WITH THE DEAD

By Chenxue Wang

Ll*

.WIT To Rania for your incredible commitment to this thesis project. All the books, articles, precedents and drawing references you recommended to me not only makes every day of my thesis semester filled with new knowledge and excitement but also guided me to think about the project in a much larger disciplinary spectrum.

To Liam and Brandon for all the inspirations and clarifications, and for helping me to consolidate the project when I'm lost or having cold feet trying.

To Anton and Mark for the constructional model- making techniques , and passionate imagination to envision the project boldly.

To my fellow classmates for the support and encouragement along the way. I wouldn't be able to make it without your help.

To my family for being my bedrock all the time. I'm sorry that I couldn't be there for you through the hard time in the past 3 months...

6 TABLE OF CONTENTS

9 The Story of Hart Island

16 Death in New York City

28 Birth of New Death Space

52 The Ucanny Concrete Plates

Appendix A The Final Review

Appendix B A Visit to Hart Island

7 AF, JI&I

8 THE STORY OF HART ISLAND

0 a 00 a0000 0

9 NYC's Potter's Field

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AIDS burials. 1981,

Hart Island, a piece of uninhabitable landscape off the coast of the Bronx overgrown with the ruins from the 19th century, is a place for burying anonymous people in New York City. If a person dies in New York with no family members to be found or sufficient amount of money in the bank account, he or she would end up in a trench here.

11 000 coo oA lunatic asylum for women was established

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crhedhrnd w6e used as a quarantine facility for yellow fever epidemict ------00 -0 6Ob------K H0o 0oo Harbl~nd was purchased by the City as the City's public cemetery ------0 ------

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Solomqn4,iley, a millionaire, proposed a seaside resort but was stymied by the c ity

Prisoners were transferred, Ieayinq-the facility as an detention center for the city jail sys

co0 0 0 C 0 0 0 o0 0 0 C)0 0 0 0 0

0008

0000 The Phoenix House drug and alcohol rehabilitation center was opened

The military evacuated Hart Island and returned the land to the city the following year

During the Cold War, Hart Island became home to a Nike Project missle base

The working prisoners erected a 30-foot tall monument for the unclaimed dead buried on,fart Island ---- The -s-nd--sr--r-d------D-rm------j------

The island was returned to the Department of Correction; the jail Was reactivated

During------World-I------War---7 II, the Navy used the prison facilities as a disciplinary barracks Ln r-I

The prisoners were transferred back to Rikers Island, leaving Hart Island uniji abte_6 _ ------I' aO 0000 0 0 0 "AIN' C 0 00 00 .J I; pj - 0 0o 0 00 0 Department of Correction once again begpn housing a small prisoner populbioow Hart Islanc ------0 ------0 CO- 0 0 0 0 C 0d 0 0 0 000 0 C' , 00 0 0 00 00 c Hart Island was vanddflz6d andcset oi9fice ------0-0- 0 DEATH IN THE CITY

16 SFuneral

Private Cemetery

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epartment Human Resources

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Moving of Potter's Field Through the urban development process, the churchyards in Manhattan no longer have enough capacity of housing the dead New Yorkers. Programmatically, burial grounds started to be considered unhygienic and needed to be removed from close contact. Typologically, the notion of a cemetery as a picturesque park has been embraced to cover up the deceased. This model of space of death itself and its relation to the city has remained unchanged since 18th century despite the continuous urbanization process.

The Conventional Cemetery Model This secluded island is a supportive element in the daily operation system of the city, and it reveals our contemporary consensus of anonymous burials and resonates the images and landscapes we today associate with death and memory, which is spatially circumscribed and finite, geographically dispelled and demographically unequal.

17 ;;;4 Hart Island Henry Hudson Bridge t tPotter's Field

George Washington Bridget North and South Brothers Island Hospital To Bird Sanctuary

Rikers Island ------Largest Prison Facility of New York Triborough Bridge

Queensboro Bridge

Holland Tunnel

Queens Midtown unne -

Lincoln Tunnel

Manhattan Brdg

Williamsberg Bridge-

Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Battery Tunnrlte

Isle of Mea dows Freshkills L andfill /

18 v- r

19 1860 Hart Island

Wards Island 1846 Randalls Island 1843

Bryant Park 1823

Washington Square P-ark 1797 Madison Square Park 1794

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144 Deaths Per Day

1 ft X 1 ft X 1 ft 13 ft X 13 ft X 13 ft soil in 12 months

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The conflict between the scarce space for the living and the dead, a part of the "ever- accumulating past" of the city that starts to fill up the plots in existing cemeteries, also poses questions for the future scenarios. How do we arrange space for the dead to prevent the burial crisis in the early 19th in Manhattan from happening again? Is it possible to inject a lifecycle of growing and decaying into death architecture so that it renews itself to address the dynamic?

24 10 million cubic yard of top soil from New Jersey

23,000 trees planted

bedrock from glacial deformation history

In this case, I propose to transform the form of a human body into inorganic matter 0 and encapsulate it into architecture creating a highly engineered subnature taking inspiration from central park.

25 Christianity 59% Vigil (wake) Funeral Mass (prayer service and eulogies) ( liturgy, homily)

Judaism 14% Body Preperation Keriah Funeral (tearing an item)

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Muslim 2% Body Preperation Funeral Interment (Washing and Shrouding) (Mosque)

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JOE H"0 r @I

26 'II Interment Mourning and Memorial (rite of committal)

Interment Reception

Funeral Events by Religion

In New York City, where there's a mix of people with various social and 110 religious states, what's the [t materialized existence of the dead that introduces greater elements of equality, democracy and fraternity into the resting place while Reception Mourning respecting the nuances of individuality and creating experiences for mourning the loved ones? The activates taking place in central park performed by all new york citizens like the Marathon and tourists around the world, provide the opportunity Unl for them to participate in the rituals of the New York .bD anonymous dead or building their anti-memorial.

27 28 ~Ii / ~tj~ .11

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4EN 0 ic

Vw ~ydXogen

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promession iI

cremation

The Process and The Substance

The transformation of substance happens within the architecture. The organic soil produced from Promession becomes the formwork. After it's used, the soil becomes part of the growing Great Hill of Central Park and reveals its existence through time. 30 water vapor nitrogen gas

kiter

nitrogen / ,.,-... ------...-...... --.-.------:------

* - - - s; ...... -...... ;.

------...

ash and cement

-e - -- - .. - * .- -

concrete

Whereas after Cremation, human bodies become ash. When it's mixed with cement, it's transformed into concrete, which is the material and formalize the architecture itself. The hearth of cremation and the liquid nitrongen cloud make the funeral visible events for visitors of Central Park to take part in. 31 Hart Island

Excavation to Bedrock

From the Island of Anonymous Dead to the Park of All Living 32 The Great Hill

Building Up the Architcture

Manipulating the topography of Central Park and situating the architecture 33 j

/ I / ~ - /1 /1/ / / Ii N

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As more people are transported to the site, the generation of the architecture begins and the volume grows layer by layer. 34 U

The Phases of Accumulating Material 35 ------...4... Y -

1 - il11 , 1

B2(promession) Floor Plan

Trucks carrying the deceased people arrive at the site via the existing paths in Central Park. Then the coffins arrive at a temporary refrigiration space for storage. The Promession process consists of three cells for freezing, shaking matter that goes through. 36 3 and seperate the N

Nx -

......

First(cremation) Floor Plan

The cremation space and chemney are carved into the poche of the concrete plate. The atrium in the middle of the plan reflects the light emit by the fire. Visitors sit across the atrium in a low-height cave. The view is open to the rest of Central Park. The circulation includes a ramp system for transporting materials and an elevator. 37 -. -r -

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N4 View Towards Central Park 46 The Central Atrium 47 The Entrance 48 J~j*V~iW Qk

Nitrogen Clound from Promession 49 . * -- -

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0t 1 52 THE UNCANNY CONCRETE PLATES

53 P4OW

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First Plaster Model Test 56 U

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Close-ups of Model Detail .57 (Down) 58 Test #2 Formwork (Up), Model 59 S

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60 -4-, Wi tit"

ormwork (Up), Model (Down) 61 62 63 64 APPENDIX A: THE FINAL REVIEW

65 UVING WITH THE DEAD

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71 APPENDIX B: A Visit to Hart Island

72 - -- -

72 73 4 -7

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Bibliography

Koolhaas, Rem. Delirious New York: a retroactive manifesto for Manhattan. New York: Monacelli Press, 1994.

Latour, Bruno. "Love Your Monsters." In Love your monsters: postenvironmentalism and the anthropocene, by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. United States: Breakthrough Institute, 2011.

Foucault, Michel. Of other spaces: Heterotopias. www.foucault. info, 2000.

Staudt, Christina, and 1. Harold Ellens. Our changing journey to the end: reshaping death, dying, and grief in America. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2014.

Gissen, David. Subnature : architecture's other environments : atmospheres, matter, life. New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 2009.

Heckscher, Morrison H. Creating Central Park. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008.

Ragon, Michel. The space of death: a study of funerary architecture, decoration, and urbanism. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983.

Guallart, Vicente. GeoLogics: geography, information, architecture. Barcelona: Actar, 2008.

Curl, James Stevens. A celebration of death: an introduction to some of the buildings, monuments, and settings of funerary architecture in the Western European tradition. New York: Scribner, 1980.

Allen, Stan, and Marc McQuade. Landform building: architecture's new terrain. Baden, Switzerland: Lars Muller Publishers, 2011.