The American Funeral Home
December 7, 2003 (All day) - January 17, 2004 (All day)
Basekamp, Philadelphia
The Institute for Advanced Architecture is pleased to present a glimpse into one of its latest projects, The American Funeral Home. With this project, the Institute has undertaken a survey of the nation’s memorial spaces, and in partnership with BASEKAMP of Philadelphia, is now making this presentation accessible to the public.
The exhibition presents a number of materials— documentary photographs, interpretive drawings, a textual guide and specially fabricated funerary accessories.
These are the result of careful collaboration by scholars, engineers, and artists from various fields, coming together to produce works for the purpose of helping the nation practice for death, an activity vital to its self-esteem.
In addition to selections from a photographic survey of American funerary facilities, there are here presented studied extrapolations of important national trends which will serve as both interventions and seeds of ritual formation.
These include Abolesco, which brings together industry and the sacred for the design of a contemporary mass-produceable coffin/ distribution system that is adaptable to today’s lifestyles. The Simetery is a computer application we have developed, using the latest cross platform technology, to help interactively design spaces of remembrance.
Inspired by funeral-home innovations, the entire exhibition is carefully lit using what we call the Natural Light system, which employs smart technology which we hope can be a foretaste of life and death alternatives to come.
