Abstract:
Taking up space, whether dead or alive, is only pertinent with the existence of those who seek to remember. Without this fundamental principle of remembering, it could be argued that there is almost no purpose for taking up any form of space on this earth. If the notion that we only really die when our names are no longer voiced out loud is true, then the ritual of yearly visitations to loved ones at their burial sites would ensure immortality. This is what the traditional Korean ritual of jesa is. If in fact it is true that paying respect to the dead by speaking aloud their names and memories made together is an assurance of eternal life, this truth would only be for certain until the death of the next generation of humans and so on. This architectural interpretation bears from the critical question of being an immigrant, understanding by way of custom and ritual what is appropriate to leave and to bring. This examination lies in none other than the desire for the permanence of life, through the fundamental consumption of food, merging with the relinquishment of a stagnant afterlife. The synergy of the two groups, the living and the dead, displays a controversial yet captivating relationship through the act of a ritual. It is an exchange that this thesis aims to investigate. How do we know when a custom has expired? Is there an appropriate and respectable manner in which to dismiss an ingrained tradition, all the while being introduced to yet another formality? Perhaps one way is through the representation by way of a physical embodiment of a narrative. This thesis aims to do just this through the introduction of a foreign presence in the existing urban landscape of Auckland City - by means of an extension of the existing Symonds Street Cemetery. The Architect’s Picnic is about the journey towards the paramount element of the living from a place of dead - the shift from confinement to consumption, and to go from an architecture of enclosure to quite the opposite, the architecture of revelation. A substantial amount of personal perception and judgment was vital to decode a form of architectural interpretation. Therefore, the necessary research components came to be largely personal and intuitive rather than detached and unbiased. This is an investigation of the culture I was exposed to for a short, brief moment in my early childhood and more significantly, my early adulthood. Its core consists of four main elements - the blanket, the mound, the basket of food and the dead.