Beauty is Truth

Beauty is Truth: A project about bridging life and death

van Weelden, C.

Nottrot, R.J. (mentor)

Architecture and The Built Environment

Architecture

ExploreLab

2016-07-01

For me it is important that people are able to relate differently to death as the ultimate truth, as the ultimate given. I would like to support those in search for creating understanding for one’s own situation, understanding the landscape of death and understanding how to relate to it in one’s own way. Inviting those people to face their destiny instead of tucking it away. I found meaning in the truth. The truth that could offer consolation and that could shatter the stigma around death. Finding one’s own truth, by undertaking a personal journey. A journey through the five phases in the process of grief: isolation, depression, bargaining, anger and ultimately acceptance. I gave each of these phases a spatial translation and gave them a place on a linear path. A path in which architecture functions as a narrative. A path that emphasizes one route out of many and defines the narrative voice, pointing at one particular way to see the building: as a journey, a journey towards acceptance. My proposal is an attempt to help (bereaved) individuals in their personal process to find truth in case of death and therefore find a way to accept death and have a relation with it. My design acts as a catalyst in this transformation. It offers an ‘out of the everyday experience’; a journey towards acceptance; a voyage of discovery. I merely offer a place of departure. Would it only be to give one a hint in the right direction. To show one how such a journey feels by recreating a similar route with the help of architectural means. A labyrinthian experience with a spiraling structure, a transcendence from dark into light, a transition from low to high. I propose to do this beautifully. Using beauty as an instrument in order to create acceptance, curiosity and serenity. Beauty makes people more willing to undertake the journey with an open mind. It helps bringing one in the relaxing state one needs to be at the start of the route. As Keats wrote in 1819: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that' is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know".

living bridge
life and death
London

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ff54f556-df88-4223-9301-ae4d84ad5ce5

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2016 van Weelden, C.