Closer to heaven: The typology of the cemetery tower

Within the past few decades the unsustainability of mainstream cemeteries has been variously addressed. The cemetery high-rise offers one of the most dramatic models for correcting widespread problems of land use, high burial costs, and issues of isolation from the city. The "cemetery tower" takes advantage of the existing high-rise for a new purpose but the twelve extant buildings have not recognized the potential of the cemetery program to alter and liberate the conventional high-rise typology. My project demonstrates how the high-rise can be reimagined when it houses a cemetery. Correcting what Rem Koolhaus dubbed the "lobotomy" of the modern high-rise in which the sub-divided interior diverges from the iconic exterior, my design induces a salutary effect by marrying the design of the exterior and interior