With some of the world’s oldest cemeteries, the issue of inadequate burial spaces is a growing concern in Prague. Situated near the heart of the city, the project aims to create an unbiased environment offering a place to celebrate one’s life alongside an option for alternative burial.

Inspired by the picturesque landscapes of 19th-century oil paintings, the project is conceived through the journey of a city dweller, who wanders into an ethereal, camouflaged landscape hidden within the urban environment. Travelling across cuts into the earth reveals an underground crematorium, featuring a metallic roof scape that controls and redirects the flow of rainwater into vegetation. The water flow is recorded by rust that comes with natural weathering, where the colour of the exterior is linked to the pristine interior through movement across the landscape.

Driven by the concept of pathetic fallacy (the attribution of human emotions to the inanimate), the project aims to investigate how the experience of the natural world could be enhanced by engaging one's senses within architectural interventions.

Beyond, the cemetery maintains an everyday function as a park. Overall, the project aims to invoke possibilities of creating a place of serenity within an urban setting.