Alternate Netherworlds
with teammates Christopher Tritt and Jennifer Hsin-ju Lai; with critics John Blood and John Eberhart
with teammates Christopher Tritt and Jennifer Hsin-ju Lai; with critics John Blood and John Eberhart
“If we truly believe that what we burn will end up in Heaven, then wouldn’t the world above look just like the one below?”
This visualization project began with the analysis of Pekka Ptikanen’s Chapel of the Holy Cross - a church known for its powerful, yet abstract rendition of funerary traditions.
We posited a simple question regarding the anti-denominational stance of his architecture: How could this simple architecture be integrated into diverse families of myth and superstition surrounding death?
Shown above: a video exercise illustrating the difference in abstraction between what is practiced in religious, and what has been given form in Pitkanen’s architecture.
The scroll to the right compounds all the beliefs commonly held in my culture, further challenging the versatility of the space: of a world between us and the moon, separated by the “silver river” and the literal gates of heaven; of auspicious clouds and scenic mountains; apartment towers and other earthly possessions, like the miniature versions we burn and send to our ancestors. The smoke from our offerings and incense rise from the chapel skylights, to complete a ceremony not of its time or place.
The scroll to the right compounds all the beliefs commonly held in my culture, further challenging the versatility of the space: of a world between us and the moon, separated by the “silver river” and the literal gates of heaven; of auspicious clouds and scenic mountains; apartment towers and other earthly possessions, like the miniature versions we burn and send to our ancestors. The smoke from our offerings and incense rise from the chapel skylights, to complete a ceremony not of its time or place.
