The wish to keep the deceased in memory forever has been translated into landscape practices which maintain a plot in perpetuity. This approach to burial is becoming impossible for ecological and economic reasons as our population increases exponentially.
Mono Lake is a natural aquatic ecosystem, which due to its unique chemical properties has nearly unlimited capacity to dissolve human remains. The first element of the design is a platform which allows boat access to transport the body. Its gentle ramps create an intimate, contained space at the lakes edge. The dead are memorialized just above the lakeshore on a volcanic dome called Black Point. There, holes in the polished surface of the basalt will correspond to the point in the lake where the body was dissolved. Over time, the ground will be studded with shimmering markers, nameless to the eye but legible to those with the coordinates which plot their location.
Mono Lake is a natural aquatic ecosystem, which due to its unique chemical properties has nearly unlimited capacity to dissolve human remains. The first element of the design is a platform which allows boat access to transport the body. Its gentle ramps create an intimate, contained space at the lakes edge. The dead are memorialized just above the lakeshore on a volcanic dome called Black Point. There, holes in the polished surface of the basalt will correspond to the point in the lake where the body was dissolved. Over time, the ground will be studded with shimmering markers, nameless to the eye but legible to those with the coordinates which plot their location.