A space has the power to dignify the feeling of losing a loved one and to give the friends and family the strength to heal from within. A crematorium is a space that encounters death and its effect on the living where there is a two-way conversation between the physical and the mental well-being of a person.
Vaikunta Mahaprasthanam is a space which was designed to capture all the emotions one goes through during these proceedings. While designing this area, we kept in mind the myriad of emotions which overlap/envelop one- from anger and pain to healing and liberation. Elements which acknowledge these emotions are used throughout our design and have guided us through to build a space with empathy, love and respect.
Eternal Embrace
This is the procession for the lost involving closest friends and family carrying the body to the cremation site.
A procession of memories with the deceased is tough and overwhelming to comprehend during such tender moments. Little can soothe the pain until one has come to accept the loss. Hence, a form that embraces and reminds the living of truth behind life & death, and thereby creating a passage of self-realisation eternally supporting the bereaved. A structure which acknowledges the pain and sadness illustrates this in the area.
Ultimate Honour
Sacrificial offerings to several deities at various stages of the cremation take place before and after the cremation of the body
The wait and burden felt by the living of bitter-sweet memories and unfulfilled wishes is the toughest of all the phases while dealing with the loss of a loved one. A disoriented moment in one's life where time is frozen and the weight full of memories, sinks on the living. A surreal monument which stretches and bends, to support and shelter the memories, creating a form that respectfully bows
Furthest Farewell
A stage where purification of the cremation ground and laying pyre is conducted
The moment of cremation is one of pure liberation felt both by the lost and the loved for each other. An instant of strengthening and brittling felt by the living in finality as the spirit of the dead leaves the house; from whence a form monumentally stands reaching out symbolically, is the farthest reaching farewell.
