Transforming the requirements for the modern architectonic design in terms of the placement of human remains

Abstract

Behind every human death there is a story, unique to the human being, one that comes to a close after the official funeral ceremony. Generally, ‘close’ is the word essential for the bereaved and should govern the entire funeral process until the eventual placement of the remains. Today, a traditional funeral ceremony is losing its importance; it has either transformed itself or ceased to exist. The consequence of these changes involves new construction types of structures or transformation of existing crematoria and ceremony halls that are part of the funeral traditions in the Czech Republic. All this began with the influence of secularisation of society in the first half of the 20th century intensified through the dictate of the political regimen in the then Czechoslovakia after 1948. The period saw a suppression of all church activities, this including the funeral industry, when the state’s objective was to take a full control of everything. It resulted in large-scale construction of funeral halls and crematoria. This pushed cremation to the current 80% or so out of the total number of funerals. Following 1989, however, the society found itself in a vacuum through another change in the system. Due to this, funeral halls lost their initial ideological substantiation. The consequences include a search for new forms and the transformation of the ceremony which moves to the area in front of the cremation chamber or even to the very site of placement. This however requires a construction of new structures and sites for storing the ash. The aim is to find the best possible way of handling human remains while creating a cemetery setting that is observed (bereaved) friendly and enables to continue burials in the current necropolis sites.