How Would You Like to Be Buried?

All Saints’ Day is a time to think of those whom we’ve lost, but also a time to ponder on our own transience. Unfortunately, this holiday has become commercialized so that cemeteries have turned into vanity fairs and places of bad taste. Enormous amounts of money are spent on decorations such as plastic flowers and grotesque lanterns, and a funeral itself now requires a loan from the bank. Ecology-wise, it seems we’ve completely forgotten that graveyard accessories pollute the environment.

However, designers have made an effort to be part of the death industry by introducing biodegradable coffins, ash artwork, and redesigned tombstones.

Swedish designer Johan Kauppi has redesigned the traditional tombstone with a simplicity that takes your breath away. He drew his inspiration from the traditional burial in the Scandinavian tribe Suomi, called “Iuohkka”, which includes planting a tree atop the gravesite. Kauppi’s magnetite tombstone has a niche for planting a flower or a tree. Thus, an attempt is made at forming a complete circle in which the environment is carefully upheld and life is celebrated. The designer had power consumption in mind while making tombstones, thus he uses magnetite remains from local Swedish quarries. Subtle, modest, and eco-friendly.

Contrary to that, Dutch Studio Wieki Somerscame up with a bizarre and extravagant way to preserve one’s loved ones. Their idea is that one can become immortal in the shape of a vacuum cleaner, a scale, or a toaster. Appliances you can’t live without.

The designer used 3D printer technology to create somewhat unconventional art (still life?) from the ashes of the deceased. Of course, this is a conceptual project that aims to underline people’s ties to material things, as well as to warn of suspicious production and value of human life in third-world countries factories. In addition, by using 3D printing technology, the designer questions eternal life, and expresses her belief that such life is pointless if we grow in careless consumerism rather than in spirit. We just wonder where she got the ashes.

However, if you’re not into modesty, transience, or the environment, you can always turn the remains of your loved ones into diamonds…