Rest in Peace?
The Death and Life of Urban Cemeteries
Nikita Ham (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
M.J. van Dorst – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
F. Rizzetto – Mentor (TU Delft - Urban Design)
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Abstract
In contemporary cities, death has become increasingly removed from everyday life. Cemeteries are often spatially and socially segregated, limiting opportunities for collective remembrance and reflection. At the same time, urban space is under growing pressure to accommodate multiple functions. This thesis explores how cemeteries can be reimagined as integrated and accessible urban spaces that reconnect death with daily life while supporting social, cultural, and ecological values.
Through a combination of fieldwork, expert interviews, and experiential, historical, financial, legal, and sociological analyses, the research develops a comprehensive understanding of the spatial functioning of contemporary Dutch urban cemeteries. To bridge research and design, a pattern language is developed that can be applied by professionals in the funerary and urbanism fields to both transform existing cemeteries and plan new ones. Based on this framework, six main design strategies are established.
The research then zooms in on four locations in Rotterdam South to explore how the integration of death into daily life can take shape within an existing urban context. First, a transformation strategy for the existing Zuiderbegraafplaats is presented. This is followed by design proposals for three sites where burial is currently not permitted, exploring new spatial relationships between remembrance, everyday use, and the city.