3/24/2016
Heading towards the light - take a look at the extraordinary new vision for graves at Arnos Vale
“Heading towards the light—take a look at the extraordinary new vision for graves at Arnos Vale.” Bristol Post, March 9, 2016.
3/24/2016
Heading towards the light - take a look at the
extraordinary new vision for graves at Arnos Vale
Heading towards the light - take a look at the extraordinary new vision for graves at Arnos Vale
The vision has been created by a team from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture,
Planning and Preservation, DeathLAB and LATENT Productions.
It envisages a network of memorial vessels transforming biomass into an "elegant and perpetually
renewing constellation of light, illuminating woodland pathways".
By David_Clensy | Posted: March 09, 2016
The Sylvan Constellation team, based in New York, have won a £5,000 cash prize and a month long
Summer 2016 residency at Arnos Vale, during which they will research the historic 42-acre cemetery and
work with the University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society as well as the Pervasive Media Studio at
the Watershed.
The aim is to work towards a feasible design for a future prototype.
Dr John Troyer, pictured below, director of the University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society and cofounder of the Future Cemetery research project says the idea was to look at 21st century models for
memorialising our dead.
"The way we dispose of people's remains and the way we memorialise them has constantly evolved
throughout history. Just a century ago the whole idea of whether cremation was appropriate was a huge
debate. But now more than 90 per cent of people in our region choose to be cremated.
"The Sylvan Constellation design is an outstanding mix of both respectful disposition for human remains
and longer term thinking around the preservation of digital data. The proposal captured the Future
Cemetery design competition's larger themes by presenting a mix of different sustainable technologies. It is
also a great opportunity for Columbia University's DeathLAB, LATENT Productions in New York City, the
University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society and Arnos Vale Cemetery to collaborate.
Sylvan Constellation offers a radical vision for how we memorialise our loved ones in the future
There is an apparent timeless quality to Arnos Vale Cemetery that belies its role as a pioneering site that
has always pushed the boundaries of what happens to our remains when we die. But a new design project
could lead to a revolutionary new way to be laid to rest at the historic cemetery.
A design competition to look for innovative ways of redesigning the disposal of both human remains and
the digital data of their lives has attracted interest from studios globally. But the winning design, chosen by
the Future Cemetery research group, "Sylvan Constellation" offers a radical vision for how we memorialise
our loved ones in the future.
Their vision is to construct a constellation of lights among the woodland around Arnos Vale, with each
beacon glowing in remembrance of an individual. It is thought an urn containing the individual's cremated
remains would be embedded within to the structure of the lamp, together with a digital depository of the
individual's online existence.
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/digital-data-grave-extraordinary-new-vision-Arnos/story-28882763-detail/story.html
1/6
3/24/2016
Heading towards the light - take a look at the extraordinary new vision for graves at Arnos Vale
3/24/2016
"By working together on this project, collaborators will establish networks for longer-term projects involving
Heading towards the light - take a look at the extraordinary new vision for graves at Arnos Vale
"I know the American design team is excited about the prospect of being able to develop their ideas during
innovative, sustainable design around end-of-life planning.
their two-month residency.
"The collaboration will also demonstrate how Arnos Vale Cemetery is a sector leader in creating new
"We hope we will be able to work with them to develop some sort of prototype of their memorial on the site,
possibilities for heritage site cemeteries while continuing to operate as a working cemetery.
which can then be worked on in the longer term. We also hope to put on a public exhibition later in the
summer at Arnos Vale explaining more about the project to the public and giving people the opportunity to
"This is an exciting time to be working on design projects that fully embrace topics like death, dying, and
have their say on the ideas the design team develop during their time in Bristol."
dead bodies and I very much look forward to seeing collaborations like this develop."
John believes the idea of a series of memorial beacons among the trees could have a universal appeal to
John says that Arnos Vale is the perfect place to focus on innovative ways to develop 21st century
people of all faiths and secular backgrounds alike.
memorials.
"Historically the iconography of cemeteries has changed a lot over the years. But as well as the obvious
"Arnos Vale is an extraordinary place," he says "As a cemetery it has always been a pioneer – not only as
religious icons at a cemetery like Arnos Vale, there has always also been a broad range of secular and
a pioneer of garden cemeteries in Victorian England, but it was also at the forefront of bringing together
quasi-secular iconography, with images like the shrouded urn being powerfully embedded with symbolism.
different religious groups on one site, as well as pioneering one of the earliest industrial-scale
crematoriums in the region.
"It is easy to see how there might be an almost universal appeal to a point of light being used as a symbol
of memorial.
"What makes Arnos Vale almost unique in the world today is its dual role – both as an historic site and
heritage cemetery, alongside the fact that it remains a working cemetery, and is still taking people's
"But the great innovation with this design would be the way in which the memorials also become used as a
remains.
depositary for our digital remains.
"You only have to look back at the early internet of 20 years ago, and you will find that almost all of it has
disappeared. It is like it never existed. Increasingly genealogists and historians are growing concerned
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/digital-data-grave-extraordinary-new-vision-Arnos/story-28882763-detail/story.html
3/6
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/digital-data-grave-extraordinary-new-vision-Arnos/story-28882763-detail/story.html
4/6
The Grade II star listed cemetery originally cost £13,340. One side of the cemetery was consecrated in
3/24/2016
Heading towards the light - take a look at the extraordinary new vision for graves at Arnos Vale
about the way in which digital material can be lost with the ever-shifting nature of the internet.
"There was a newspaper in the States, for example, which recently discovered it had lost its entire archive
from the last few years of reporting, simply because it had depended entirely on an online means of
storage. When the website was updated, everything was lost.
"Increasingly our digital footprint is enormous. Just think how many marks we leave digitally every day of
our lives. So we're starting to think about how we preserve that element of our existence in the years to
come, and how we leave something behind.
"If you think about it, cemeteries have always been a depositary for the data of our lives, and this is just
about making that role fit fully into the 21st century world."
1840 and by the end of the 19th century 96,000 burials had taken place.
In the late 20th century the historic site became dilapidated and run down after years of neglect and was
taken over in 1985 by businessman Tony Towner. Two years later he controversially locked the doors to the
cemetery
3/24/2016
of his plans to build houses on the site.
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/digital-data-grave-extraordinary-new-vision-Arnos/story-28882763-detail/story.html
Mr Towner's action led to massive opposition from the Friends of Arnos Vale and members of the
community launched a campaign, which was backed by the Evening Post, to save and preserve Arnos
Vale. BGCC owned the cemetery until 2003, when it was bought by Bristol City Council under a
compulsory purchase order after a 16-year campaign to stop Mr Towner redeveloping the land.
Members of the Friends of Arnos Vale then set up a trust for the cemetery's restoration, which has now
been taking place for more than a decade, transforming it into a major heritage attraction for the city.
0
The Arnos Vale Story
Arnos Vale was opened, next to Bath Road in Brislington, in 1836 by the Bristol General Cemetery
Company (BGCC).
The Grade II star listed cemetery originally cost £13,340. One side of the cemetery was consecrated in
1840 and by the end of the 19th century 96,000 burials had taken place.
In the late 20th century the historic site became dilapidated and run down after years of neglect and was
taken over in 1985 by businessman Tony Towner. Two years later he controversially locked the doors to the
cemetery and told relatives of those who were buried there that they should dig up their loved ones ahead
and told relativesHeading
of those
who
were
buried
that they
should
dig up
their
towards
the light
- take
a look at there
the extraordinary
new vision
for graves
at Arnos
Valeloved ones ahead
5/6