Day 032, 5 March 2026

#review #approach #programme #dreamscape #site

5 March 2026

thoughts

My presentation is tomorrow. I found out that I have an extra day to get it together and make it strong. I met with my supervisor yesterday, and I am still stressed because I have not found a site. He described a thesis that is very specific to a site and another that is more theoretically driven and speculative. I have identified lots of disconnect and issues, and I am trying to take a theoretical stance towards them. “It's not so much program-driven as it is approach-driven, although the program itself is also quite unique.” I am interested in neuroarchitecture, sensory and phenomenological spaces, biomaterials and computational design in construction. But I do not know how biomaterials work, and I do not want to frame the project so that I am stuck with a claim I cannot make. Neuroarchitecture and creating sacral space are the greater points for me now.

Source: 5 March messages #operations.

This is a secular programme with accommodations for different spiritual and cultural needs, but it “will definitely not attract all types of people”. I am trying to reinvent the relationship we have with death. I am not interested in conventional built form, but I do not have a design vocabulary here. I am struggling with graphics and with what the built form should be, and I do not know the extent that I am trying to design for. A(rt)sylum is a large body of research from my honours year that I can bring into the theoretical approach. Its heterotopic programming and liminal spatial experiences give me a philosophy for healing space. I want something different from other things, but “somewhat strangely familiar or transmuted” so that a person questions what they are experiencing. That first conversation about speculative work had made the far-fetched possibilities exciting to me.

Source: 5 March messages and recalled meeting #operations.

I am lacking graphics. I have posed the question of a living building that “held and fed off the deceased”. I do not know if that is too sinister, or if it is the ultimate return to life. I want to keep biomaterials in the investigation, but I do not know enough about them to make them the focus. I also have an image in mind of a utopian, organic vertical greenscape that feels otherworldly and contrasts its context, but I worry that it is only what I want the project to look like. I do not want the visual argument to be solely ecological. Return to nature matters, but I want colour and something “ethereal, sublime, otherworldly, liminal”.

Source: 5 March visual and material questions #operations.

in the background

Everything is everywhere: Obsidian, browser tabs, PDFs, Zotero, handwritten notes, phone images, my iPad and Heptabase. I am really frazzled, and I have still not solidified a site. When an outline makes the programme the core of the thesis, I have to correct it: “that is not how my thesis is structured.” I am exploring neuroarchitecture, heterotopia and liminality through a programme of grief, while also trying to reinvent our relationship with death and grief programmatically. In my oral draft I call it “a speculation of approach to programme”. The approach is philosophical and strategic. Ritual, memorial and grief integration remain the three programme parts.

Source: 5 March structure correction and oral draft #operations.

In the oral draft I return to “the antithesis to this project is a lonely and forgotten grave”. I am drawn to alternatives to traditional graves, perhaps vertical or linear burial, cremation or mausolea. I favour a crematorium partly because it is what I know, but I do not want to take a position against traditional burial within isiZulu belief. I want to frame alternatives beautifully in the hope that perspectives might evolve towards them. I have three site criteria: demographic diversity, proximity to water for possible ash release, and urban visibility and access. I have mapped intersections between the N2 and rivers and looked for plots large enough for the programme without isolating it from community life. I would prefer urban KwaDukuza, but I am struggling to get information. eThekwini has more available data and a stronger land-pressure case. I still do not have a confirmed site.

Source: 5 March criteria and later recollection #operations.

I have been looking at water rituals, death rituals and religious beliefs in the local context because I want community-led criteria for the programme. I read an article with Zulu respondents describing different attitudes to cremation, and I am putting extracts into my slides. Some reject it strongly because of beliefs about the body and ancestors, while another supports it. I know from Muslim family and friends that burial has particular requirements, and I have made a brief search into Jewish practice. I am trying to argue for dignity and offer an alternative people might choose. I am unsure how a vertical cemetery, crematorium or mausoleum could respond to these different practices.

Source: pre-review reading recollected on 8 October #operations.

In a conversation with Gustavo I told him I was not really interested in buildings. I was thinking about Richard Serra, installations and landscape-led spatial pieces. He recommended Walkscapes. I am still unsure what I want to do, but that possibility feels different from what I have done before.

Source: recalled Gustavo conversation #operations.