Ritual elements : a cemetery in Montana

Abstract

"As pines keep the shape of the wind even when the wind has fled and is no longer there So walls guard the shape of man even when man has fled and is no longer there. " -- George Seferis. The walls we make are the culmination of choices. This thesis explores the intensification of an unbuilt landscape; underlying it is the notion that place making is both site and culturally specific, and reveals some deeper meaning about who and where we are, and what we value. I seek to celebrate the poetic, philosophical, and physical aspects of landscape and architecture through the design of three integrated places: a chapel, a crematorium, and a columbarium. Through this process I reflect upon the expression of ritual, loss, and remembrance.