Physical and Virtual Spaces of Grieving

Abstract

Life is a linear progression of the past, present, and future. Death is an inevitable part of this sequence, signifying the end. As an emotional response to a loved one’s death, grief comprises several emotions and stages. Since antiquity, the commemoration of the deceased has been an integral part of emotion management for the bereaved. Northern European artists and writers perceived nature as a symbol of grief and death. Cemeteries such as the Woodland cemetery in Stockholm, Sweden, confirm this tendency. Funerary spaces interweave the physical and the spiritual world by containing grief in nature and experimenting with shadow and light and the presence or absence of materiality.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic and the massive deaths resulted in an emergency in funeral services worldwide. Restrictions such as social distancing, the use of face masks, isolation, a limit on the number of guests allowed, and not being allowed to touch the deceased’s body severely affected the way grief is experienced among the bereaved. The outburst of COVID-19 also affected the way funerary rituals were performed. Several funeral rituals were broadcasted digitally, making the body no longer the physical means of mourning. These practices have given birth to new grieving rituals on the Internet, an immaterial tool designed to instantly share moments of the users’ lives. However, are these emerging means of digital mourning as effective as material mourning? How should designers treat funerary architecture in the rapidly digitalizing age we live in? What can architecture learn from digital mourning rituals?