MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE
Anna Kosichenko— Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal
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Anna Kosichenko— Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal
About the Award
Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal:
For those students who have achieved high academic standing in the top 10% of their graduating class.
Cadences of Being:
Architecture for the Living
Architecture is an artifact frozen in time, a physical ‘time stamp’ - an object that reflects its environment and values. While such physical ‘time stamps’ define our relationship with mortality, it begs the question:
“What is the future role of burial architecture in the realm of living?”
‘Funeral Machine’ is a conceptual representation of current outdated, mechanized and costly burial practices are centred on the efficiency of the process rather than the experience of users, facilitating further physical and metaphysical disconnect between life and death.
New technologies for sustainable dying provide an opportunity to reform the ritual of mourning and use the built form to redefine culture’s relationship with mortality and grief. The proposal provides a space for grieving in a city, crafting architecture that values human-centred experience and shines a light on death as part of life.
Time is an inseparable part of human beings that dictates our vision of self and others. At the same time architecture is a mirror created by humanity to reflect the present into the future, crafting an inseparable link across time through built form.
While the concept of time is rigid and consistent, grief is a fluid process of self-discovery that requires freedom and openness. Similar to the current industry, the beginning of this thesis’ journey was full of knowns with rigid answers and straightforward directions. However, after learning more about ‘the knowns’ and the rigidity of practices, a series of critiques inspired playfulness and attracted unconventional discoveries that resulted in ‘the unknowns’. The answer found through design research and endless iterations mattered less than the process of discovery itself. This playfulness allowed this thesis to strip away the unnecessary rigid ‘knowns’ the society is obsessed with and connect better to the only ‘unknown’ that matters - the inner self.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the incredible honor of receiving the Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal at DAS TMU. This has made a lasting difference in my architectural journey, and I am inspired to pay it forward to the community and the profession in the future.
Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal:
For those students who have achieved high academic standing in the top 10% of their graduating class.
Cadences of Being:
Architecture for the Living
Architecture is an artifact frozen in time, a physical ‘time stamp’ - an object that reflects its environment and values. While such physical ‘time stamps’ define our relationship with mortality, it begs the question:
“What is the future role of burial architecture in the realm of living?”
‘Funeral Machine’ is a conceptual representation of current outdated, mechanized and costly burial practices are centred on the efficiency of the process rather than the experience of users, facilitating further physical and metaphysical disconnect between life and death.
New technologies for sustainable dying provide an opportunity to reform the ritual of mourning and use the built form to redefine culture’s relationship with mortality and grief. The proposal provides a space for grieving in a city, crafting architecture that values human-centred experience and shines a light on death as part of life.
Time is an inseparable part of human beings that dictates our vision of self and others. At the same time architecture is a mirror created by humanity to reflect the present into the future, crafting an inseparable link across time through built form.
While the concept of time is rigid and consistent, grief is a fluid process of self-discovery that requires freedom and openness. Similar to the current industry, the beginning of this thesis’ journey was full of knowns with rigid answers and straightforward directions. However, after learning more about ‘the knowns’ and the rigidity of practices, a series of critiques inspired playfulness and attracted unconventional discoveries that resulted in ‘the unknowns’. The answer found through design research and endless iterations mattered less than the process of discovery itself. This playfulness allowed this thesis to strip away the unnecessary rigid ‘knowns’ the society is obsessed with and connect better to the only ‘unknown’ that matters - the inner self.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the incredible honor of receiving the Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal at DAS TMU. This has made a lasting difference in my architectural journey, and I am inspired to pay it forward to the community and the profession in the future.
