As a means of offering a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to gravestones, Designers Anna Citelli and Raoul Bretzel have created a biodegradable burial pod called Capsula Mundi.
Placing the deceased into Capsula Mundi in a fetal position, the pod is buried and a tree chosen by either the deceased prior to death and or loved ones will then be planted on top to “serve as a memorial for the departed and as a legacy for posterity and the future of our planet”.
“Family and friends will continue to care for the tree as it grows. Cemeteries will acquire a new look and, instead of the cold grey landscape we see today, they will grow into vibrant woodlands, sacred forests,” said Citelli and Bretzel.
“The Capsula Mundi project roses from a deep examination of the role of designers in our society. In a culture far removed from nature, overloaded with objects for the needs of daily life and focused on youth, death is often dealt with as a taboo,” noted the designers. “We believe that this unavoidable passage, so meaningful, is not the end, but the beginning of a way back to nature.
“The biological life cycle and its transformations are the same for every living being,” said the designers. “It is time for humans to realize our integrated part in nature. Capsula Mundi wants to emphasize that we are a part of Nature’s cycle of transformation.”
“This universal concept goes beyond cultural and religious traditions. Only a tree, a symbol of the connection between the sky and the earth, will mark the resting place of the deceased,” explained the designers. “As tree after tree is planted, the cemetery will become a forest, free of the architectural motifs that mark today’s memorial grounds. The cemetery will be transformed into a place of nature, one where families can stroll and learn about the natural world, where communities will come together to tend and care for trees. In short, it will become a sacred forest.”
With the trees marked with a GPS so that the deceased can be tracked and found by loved ones, the trees themselves will be protected and maintained by managing agents of the forest. In the case that a tree has died, the same and or similar tree will be replanted as a replacement.
The designers have also created a small urn made from bioplastic that stores the ashes of the deceased.
To learn more about Capsula Mundi, click the link below.
