Highgate: the Living Cemetery
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Highgate: The Living Cemetery Our vision for Highgate Cemetery envisages A historic cemetery of the 21st century: a place of coexistence for all life and all Seven generation stewardship death - human and non-human, local and global. Karl Marx is joined by the last white Learning from the Native American Iroquois philosophy, the concept of seven generation stewardship urges our rhino; the Victorian mass common graves current generation to look both backwards and forwards are accompanied by mausoleums for stag three generations beyond our own lifetime - to the Hillway beetles; and contemporary ecological peripheries of the people we have encountered. In doing death practices nourish the earth for future so, we can better understand the implications of our actions and take responsibility for them - designing for generations. the long term. interventionsTerrain Highgate has long been home to some of the greatest For the East Cemetery, seven generation stewardship St men and women of London’s history. It is also a place is transposed into seven gardens, a structuring device Michael’s where nature has coexisted alongside human burial for defining distinct character areas, woodland management Localised burial mound Slope stabilisation Stream / retention pond Church centuries, but it has done so coincidentally. In our vision approaches and rituals for remembrance. In the more the site will now also be home to the greatest non-human historically sensitive West Cemetery, it is transposed species and actively managed living systems. into seven management actions that underline and complement the historical character. We look to a future of fully integrated natural systems where the cemetery is managed as a circular, zero- This forms the basis for an evolutionary design system waste woodland; to the gradual growth of a future - a progressive and long-term approach to stabilising climate-adapted forest; where communities are invited the delicate balance of the cemetery. Each ‘generation’ to learn and work with the woodland; and where human develops over time, allowing for review, reaction and death cycles are aligned with ecological life. This is the evolution that looks simultaneously forwards and back. LEBANON instigation of an evolutionary approach to stabilise a CIRCLE highly delicate and complex site. At Highgate, we embrace Woodland interventions the restorative power of nature in both life and death, for past and future generations Haloing of significant trees Thinning and coppicing Girdling and tree graveyard Highgate URC Church -75 yrs Now +75 yrs -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 HIGHGATE WEST Your great- Your Your parents You Your Your Your grandparents grandparents children children’s children’s CEMETERY children children’s children Ecological interventions Highgate tube station 40min walk The seven generation principle Now Herb / field and understorey Ecological monuments Standing deadwood +25 -25 yrs yrs PLANT TREE 0 Now RESTOCK -1 +1 WOODLAND Waterlow Park -25 +25 FOR CLIMATE Tennis Courts yrs yrs COMMEMORATE CHANGE -50 HUMAN -50 +50 yrs LIFE NOURISH +50 -2 yrs FUTURE yrs yrs Preservation interventions +2 FOREST LIFE Chapel -75 +75 Restoration of historic assets Retain in state of disrepair Excavation and reuse yrs yrs -3 +3 -75 +75 yrs Swain’s Lane yrs Holly Village Ritualised Ecological Design: A Whole Earth Cemetery: An evolutionary management tool Ecological and human life and death cycles THE FUTURE FOREST Ongoing assessment and responsive management Through embracing ecological transformation, Highgate THE CRADLE is vital to understand the delicate balance between Cemetery has the opportunity to lead in changing burial ecological, historic, subterranean and emotional needs. expectation, practice and experience of death. This can There are many contradictory requirements, which must help address the cultural trauma and common disjunction Ecological be continuously acknowledged throughout an ongoing in how Britain currently deals with death. THE GARDEN OF chapel process of restoration, redesign and management. LOST SPECIES Highgate Cemetery is already home to many different Channing We propose the development of a management tool religious, non-religious and spiritual movements including Junior School through which to assess and prioritise what interventions Egyptianism, communism and Christianity. We propose should be carried out where and when. Such a tool could working with nature to underline this spiritual sense of Chester Road be used to inform micro-interventions as part of a much place and provide non-exclusive spaces for the general larger vision of Highgate’s long term future. It will allow expression of grief. This will be experienced by the Konstam the Cemetery to simultaneously look backwards and individual, such as planting trees in commemoration, the Children forwards throughout its evolution, and could be linked collective, such as remembering London’s Lost Rivers, Centre THE GARDEN OF to an interactive digital map to continually assess sites and the global, such as commemorating extinct species. HIGHGATE EAST REMEMBRANCE for interventions. The below diagram offers a simplified CEMETERY version of this system which would be further developed As an active burial ground, Highgate has a unique through the design process and in consultation with the opportunity to put new burial and grieving methods Friends of Highgate Cemetery, Grave Owners and key into practice. Participating in woodland transformations WATERLOW PARK stakeholders. Crucially, the tool would allow for plural will engage with mourning as a slow process, allowing Brookfield outcomes rather than predetermine one finite design. families to contribute to the landscape and become part Primary of natures transformation alongside their own. School THE WORKING The masterplan illustrated on the following pages WOODLAND presents one worked example of how the tool can be Through expanding its reach to partner other institutions implemented on site. It is not fixed and its details can be such as Bath University Future Cemetery, The Museum interchangeable in their scale and position. of London, Kew Gardens and The Serpentine General THE GARDEN OF THE GARDEN Ecology project, Highgate Cemetery can contribute to a Highgate REFLECTION OF REBIRTH wider city and country-wide knowledge dividend. Library Lauderdale House Ghana High Lux Commission Playground Raydon Street Highgate Hill KEY (In addition to the above diagrams) Site boundary line THE GARDEN Entrance / potential future entrance OF REBIRTH St Joseph’s RC Parish Historically listed monument Highgate Wing, Church Priority monument restoration area Whittington 100m Protected bat roost Hospital 0 Preserved historic view corridor Contours Burial management Woodland management Archway Tube Station Dartmouth Park Road 22 min walk Diagram of the evolutionary management tool Highgate Cemetery site plan in context.