Gandhi and his followers marched from the Ashram through Dandi Bridge and the crematorium site before entering the old city. Similar to how the Ashram Laundry parasites the riverfront and the Sabarmati River, Dandi Crematorium acts as a part of the Sabarmati Riverfront City proposal to re-engage the Sabarmati River with narratology of rituals and narratives of the in-between spaces.
Indian rituals are always respected, and they never completely disappear. In Hinduism, the belief is that life is based on illusion of being in samsara, which is conditioned by karma. Yet souls are able to liberate from samsara by cremation. Cremation is a part of the rituals that reincarnate souls to the next level, to give the souls freedom from their past lives’ sins. In this rite of passage, it requires the combination of fire and water – fire for escape, and water to rebirth. Therefore, dying in Hinduism is not the end of life, it is the beginning.
Carrying this main narrative, this project aims to initiate a rebirth city by re-establishing the relation between the city of living and the city of death through re-engagement with water, boundaries and ecology. The in-between condition of the living and the dead makes up a series of soft boundaries that rely on each other. The new range of liminal transpositions across the territory include the proposal to plant large areas of local trees. Some are coppiced as demand to provide the firewood, and yet, they provide the space for the living, shaping a park with chai stalls and places of rest and repose.
In Islamic culture, people believe in physical resurrection of the body on Judgement Day. “To God we belong and to Him we shall return” (Quran 2:156). It reminds one of their origin and ultimate destiny. And deaths becomes a part of a continuum where it stretches to infinity. Therefore, the faith prohibits cremation. And the rituals involve burial and prayers.
Whilst, in Hinduism the belief is that life is based on illusion, enabling a person to believe he is an autonomous being in samsara (cycle of life) which is conditioned by karma. Yet, some souls would break through the illusion of samsara from the present life to achieve moksha (liberation). Moksha is freedom from karma and samsara. In Hinduism ritual, reincarnation and cremation are tightly connected. Cremation is to free the soul from the body, enabling its journey to the next level, which aim to let the reincarnated soul liberate from the repeated sins of samsara. Therefore, the rituals would combine fire (escape) and water (rebirth).
The illustration on the right “Gajendra Moksha” is a symbolic tale in Vaishnavism. In which, the elephant named Gajendra, a human being, enters a lake, samsara, where a crocodile, his sin, clutches his leg. Gajendra remembers Vishnu, who liberates him, rather than his pain and suffer.
“When you spread the ashes in the river, you know it is over. A deep acceptance of death happens for the living – and it is also for the dead.”
- Sadhguru
- Sadhguru
Pavilions
The final step for the cremation ritual is rebirth. It involves the act of spreading ashes. Pavilions are designed to accommodate this part of the journey. The three pavilions parasited the edge of the river creek. Through the section below the pavilions are programmed from left to right: community pavilion, ritual pavilion and public pavilion. The three pavilions are connected with a continuous timber footbridge elevated above the river creek.
The journey of the pavilion starts from the staircase next to the office. It leads the visitors up to the community pavilion overlooking the crematorium. Consequently, they arrive to the ritual pavilion, where they scatter the ashes closer to the river. The footbridge continues and arrives to the public pavilion. This pavilion is an intersection between the private axis and the public axis.
The pavilions’ posture is portrayed as edges of the territory. The overall pavilions and footbridge structures are a reference to the architectonics from Gandhi’s Ghost.
New Seriality of cremation
One of the in-between narratives is the combination of the water and the fire. A new cremation system is designed in order to bring the continuity of structure on site, while residing next to the Sabarmati River. The concept of the new cremation system is an adaptation of the existing Mokshda cremation system. It also aims to have a series of cremation system constructed under one canopy. Pre-cast concrete canopy is designed to hold the series of chimneys together, supported by metal columns. With the slanted canopy, it gives shading and provides operative temperature under the structure. The cremation system operates similarly to the Mokshda system. The body would be placed on top of wood logs. The wood logs are piled on a metal apparatus, which is placed on a small concrete platform. Each cremation takes around 2-3 hours. The remains would then be collected and handed to the families.
Wood Supply for crematorium
With the development of the cremation system structure, the wood usage per cremation is similar to that of the Mokshda system. In the old Vadaj Crematroium, they have the transported firewood placed on the floor next to their office building and waiting to be used. And the amount of wood being used and being transported creates unnecessary energy waste. Thus, a new programme for Dandi Crematorium is revised.
a) wood is produced on site and across Sabarmati Riverfront City; b) a route for wood transportation, open plan to unload fresh cut wood; c) building envelope for wood to dry and to be stored; d) office to manage wood production system, security and archive.
The woodland between the Ashram Road and the crematorium is planted with Gujarat local trees. Workers cut the wood on demands. An 18-meter height tower is designed to store 6 months’ worth of wood supply. By the tower’s entrance, there is an open space for wood logs being taken in the tower, and out of the tower to the cremation systems. Adjacent to these activities, there is an office for record keeping.
A total of six types of local trees are planted around the crematorium, in which, four types are for firewood productions, the other two types are planted to improve the surround environment.
The four types of firewood are: Arabic tree, East Indian Walnut, Axlewood and White Bark Acacia, for their easy accessibilities, approciate heights and good firewood qualities. The other two species for environmental purpuse are: Palash and Candahar tree.
Butea monosperma [Palash]: The orange coloured flowers are crushed and used to make dyesfor religious festivals such as the festival of colours (Holi), interior paint and even has a role in funerary rituals.
Gmelina arborea [Candahar tree]: This plant species can be used to grown to protect environment against increasing concentrate of CO2.
Gmelina arborea [Candahar tree]: This plant species can be used to grown to protect environment against increasing concentrate of CO2.
This wood management programme generated a new narrative of cycle of life as one of the in-between narratives. It sits between the cremation system and the growing trees, offering architectonics of the cycle of life [trees, humans].
The trees grow around the site and are cut using coppicing method - the trees are cut at around 30cm above ground. It allows tree stump to grow more branches much quicker. The locally planted wood would be cut, stored and ordered in the wood storage tower. When the quantity of wood is demanded from the on-site cremation, the dried wood logs from the tower would be transported down with a pully system and be wheeled to the designated cremation system.
All trees are spaced at around 3x3m to 5x5m allowing them to breath and grow. At the same time, arrangement of trees offers liminary spaces for stone pavements in the woodland for public and visitors.
wood storage tower
The freshly cut trees or trees that are transported from the Sabarmati Riverfront City plantation, are stored in layers of the 18-meter-tall tower. The tower is designed to store up to 6 months of wood supply for all 6 of the cremation systems on site. It is constructed with concrete framework and perforated brick skin to provide air ventilation to dry the wood. The wood logs are arranged cord by cord, on top of the concrete shelving. The roof platform offers an amenity space to overlook the city.
The tectonic of wood storage system is referred to as the Delhi Gate Market Storage design. The shelves on both Delhi Gate and the wood storage tower run along the wall structure. And they both have circulation dictated by the shelves. The wood storage tower also has a pulley system suspended from the horizontal beam allowing workers to bring the supply to and from the ground level.
The perforated brick envelopes the tower and diffuses sunlight during the day, allowing natural wind to speed up the drying process. The wood logs become yet another skin of the tower. The are constantly required throughout the day, and the layering becomes more significant as the movement of the wood logs presents through the perforated brick skins. Each floor has a walkable timber surface and two layers of shelving. The circulation takes place in the middle of the tower.
The tower’s roof collects the monsoon wetness. During the season, the rainwater runs down to the lower roof adjacent to the tower, consequently to the gutter in the middle of the cremation ground thus forming a series of rainwater walls.
longitudinal constitution
While each timber system presents the possibility for one or another narrative to be played out, the tower is where multiple narratologies come to be, as such, the tower holds a much thicker material presence.
The timber architecture along the axis aids two narratives. One is the narrative of guiding The Salt March, and another narrative is the narrative of the rituals. The rituals take place parallel to the timber, and the timber structure creates the possibilities of seclusion as well as openness by the nature of the frame. Behind the frame one can choose whether to be absent through its thickness, or present through its voids. The breathing tectonics of the timber screens transposes different situations of human postures.
liminary boundaries
The continuation of The Salt March narrative and the ritual narrative intersect with the narrative of liminary boundaries. The woodland around the crematorium site can be seen as a park for the public. Yet it is not an ordinary park as the trees that are planted are for firewood production. The chai stalls in the park offer the intersection between the public and the private. For the crematorium visitors, it offers the final chapter for the ritual ceremony.
Dandi Crematorium Designed by Chu-Lin Pamela Feng