The landscape of the dead becomes a landscape of data in the sky, mapping relationships between the decease that inform and engage the city user. By absorbing the traces of human life, death and architecture become one.

The cemetery is antiquated and we have demanded nothing from it. If this typology wants to remain within the urban fabric it must give back to the city like any other element. Often very limited public spaces, they are embedded with strict social codes that deter certain social behavior. My intention is to erradicate the traditional borders of the cemetery. The hortus conclusis becomes the hortus expositus. The remaining “sixth plane” within the garden, the sky, becomes the place of burial and all other five planes are opened up to the city in a welcoming gesture.

The space that is opened up gives back to the city. It becomes more democratic. Our spatial relationships with the city are being radically redifined by the emerging presence of digital technology within our daily lives, this must be embraced and merged with outdated typologies. If the cemetery wants valuable space within the city and amongst the living then it needs to conform to the present day situation and give back.

Coffins are huge space wasters and so are urns with ashes. A company from Switzerland started offering the service of transforming loved ones ashes into artificial diamonds. The high carbon content is compressed and then superheated. This technique allows for an immense improvement in terms of spatial efficiency in a city that desperately needs it. The tough materiality of the diamond allows for an extremely long lifetime and zero maintanence.

The floating roof is a non-hierarchical structure embedded with these diamonds that are connected to a sea of fiberoptic cables above. The light is then recieved from either the sun or the city. When lit from beneath the light travels back through the roof and into a glowing field of light where ceremonial burials are conducted in the form of planting the diamond and cable.

The fast bright light digital lives of the Tokyo citizens coincide with the way that this cemtery is used. Augmented reality and cameratracking technology make it possible to experience the dead within the city in a new context and new way. Using our phones we can livemap the decease buried in the sky, seeing relationships between people, relative information and even access the history of our ancestors. The dead have an honorable place within the ity but also offer the city user information, shelter and light.