Diplomprosjekt
Vår 2020
Institutt for urbanisme og landskap
The Quarry and the Tumulus is the transformation of a quarry located in the Oslo forest, that through decades of excavations have produced a large scale, dramatic and artificial landscape. Taking the concept and program of a cemetery as a point of the departure for the design, the project is forcing the reimagination of what a cemetery is and what functions it could have in the future.
Like an inverted sculpture created by man and machines, the terraced landscape of bedrock offers different ways of experiencing the space. Completely surrounded by spruce and pine forest, the quarry becomes a clear-ing in the forest, a light and silent retreat from the busy city close by.
The project becomes a testing ground for a compostarium, an alternative to cremation and coffin burial. Using traditional agricultural techniques, the compostarium transforms the body of the deceased to fertile soils. The soils are then spread in the quarry, slowly contributing to the reclaiming and revegetation of the exposed bed-rock.
A grid of squares control the immense scale and organize the space into smaller and more comprehensible rooms. The grid is extruded from the floor, creating fences and walls that guide the movement, controls the view, and define spaces that feel more intimate. Gardens of remembrance are established between the walls, creating a space that feels secluded from the rest of the world.
Designed like healing gardens, the idea is that through maintaining and taking care of the gardens, those left behind can find the process and experience of seeing something flourish and come to life as a therapeutic and meditative task that helps them move forward. In that way, the circle becomes finished, and the quarry a heal-ing landscape with the cemetery as the landscape healer.
Runa Oline Hermansen / runahermansen@live.no
