Wesley Twiss from the Unitec School of Architecture was a finalist in the 2019 NZIA Resene Student Design Awards for his project, 'Daylight, Death and Ritual Prometheus'.

Project description

In On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Küber-Ross, the journey one experiences when grieving is seen as a shifting between a series of stages. In this project this wandering – a ‘pilgrimage of grief’ – takes place through the tunnels beneath Auckland’s Albert Park.

Here, deep in the earth, light becomes poignant and is only present wherepermitted. The project aims to use the permitted daylight to evoke an understanding of grief through architecture based on exploring the participants, their rituals, and the context in which the design will be used.

An inner-city crematorium linked to the pilgrimage of grief provides a chthonic conclusion to the investigation. Thecombination of earth, light and fire, and death results in an opportunity Promethean in nature and rich with ritual narrative.

Citation

This is a beautiful project – a thesis expressed with clarity and sensitivity, premised on inclusivity and inspired with optimism. Proposing architecture in a National Park – and, what’s more, Fiordland National Park – is a bold move, but Abdallah carries if off with grace and a totally winning sensibility. The scheme is a series of architectural interventions – an architecture of special moments – designed for an age in which most people have no allegiance to a particular religion but retain the capacity to be awe-struck by nature. The scheme exhibits a profound understanding of and sympathy for the human condition. The openness of the architecture is a befitting expression of the generosity of the designer.