AWARD YEAR
2023
CATEGORY
Body
GOALS
Responsible Consumption & Production, Life On Land
KEYWORDS
deforestation, design for death, funeral, death design, burials
COUNTRY
Denmark
DESIGNED BY
Pia Galschiøt Bentzen & Beyond Life
WEBSITE
https://beyondlife.dk/beyond-urnen/
Beyond Urn
A biodegradable urn inspired by and giving back to nature
How does it work?
Beyond is a unique Danish-designed urn in certified 100% biodegradable material, and the urn's shape is inspired by nature's own organic design.
In the small leaf, which is attached to the urn, are seeds, which germinate into fine flowers and a tree. After the urn is buried or the ashes sprinkled over the sea, the bereaved can take the leaf with them and sow the seeds wherever they want. Year after year, generation after generation, the bereaved will now be able to follow how they germinate and grow. It lets the tree of life create its own continuing narrative, as an eternal memory of the ones who have been lost.
Why is it needed?
The process of preserving and sealing corpses into caskets and then plunging them into the ground is extremely environmentally unfriendly. Toxic chemicals from the embalming, burial, and cremation process leach into the air and soil, and expose funeral workers to potential hazards. And maintaining the crisp, green memorial plots is extremely land-and-water-use heavy (Insider).
According to the Berkeley Planning Journal, conventional burials in the US every year use 30 million board feet of hardwoods, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, 104,272 tons of steel, and 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete. The amount of casket wood alone is equivalent to about 4 million acres of forest and could build about 4.5 million homes.
How does it improve life?
The idea with Beyond is that the bereaved, in addition to visiting the burial site, can see life sprout and pick a bouquet of flowers where they put the seed capsule in the ground. Here, consideration for nature is paramount.