emily walkemeyer’s dead matter concept, a machine for living and dying

emily walkemeyer’s dead matter concept, a machine for living and dying
all visuals courtesy of emily walkemeyer

the sense of permanency once associated with death is quickly disappearing. burial, in conventional terms, is no longer sustainable, and will continue in a negative direction as the world’s population continues to grow. so what happens when there is simply no more space to put people?

ceremony space

australian architect emily walkemeyer examines the issue in her conceptual project, ‘dead matter: a machine for living and dying’. taking form as a tower, the structure acts as a vessel where the entirety of life operates in a closed loop. inhabitants carry out their existence within the ‘machine’, which runs autonomously using the ‘fundamental hunger for consumption’ as its fuel. when death comes, as it always does, each person will be reduced to nothing, recycled and re-used within the confines of the tower. living is transformed to dead, and dead to living once more.  

toxic wastelands

roof level

turbine

decomposition chambers 

plan

ground floor plan 

plan, sub-level 1 

roof plan 

section ‘core’

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.