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German Design Graduates

(Archive) Designed to die

An urn made of soy wax that helps shape the funeral.

This project was part of DDW 2023
Hannah Uszball

The urn resulting from the work "Designed to Die" address the importance of an urn burial for relatives as well as for the deceased person. It actively participates in the design of the funeral ritual and independently decides when it will be completed.

An urn that drops.

More and more people in our society nowadays prefer cremation, which means that urns occupy a significant place in our funeral culture. However, the design possibilities of an urn are often not fully exploited, and they often seem incidental to a funeral. Nevertheless, it is of great importance to bereaved families that they perceive the burial of their loved one as beautiful, and urns play an important role in this. The last memory of a deceased person should not be carelessly designed, but should leave a present impression, celebrating the life of the deceased person.

The created urn from the work Designed to Die picks up on the importance of an urn burial for relatives as well as for the deceased person. It shows how important it is to give a loved one a proper burial and illustrates that the urn plays the central role in this process. The urn is made of pure soy wax, and is divided into two parts. The inner part holds the ashes and stands in the center of the outer part, which is placed on a ring over the urn’s grave. Flowers are placed decoratively around the inner part. The candles placed on the outside contain up to four wicks and are first lit over the urn grave. Within 45 minutes, they burn down to the point where the urn no longer has a hold on the ring and falls into the urn grave. Thus, the urn ends the ceremony. To ensure the drop, the wicks from the candles in the bottom of the outer section are arranged in a circle around the urn inside. Unlike traditional urn burials, the funeral service is now held directly at the grave next to the urn, rather than in the funeral hall. The process creates a new type of burial and gives survivors the opportunity to give their loved ones a proper burial and keep them in fond memory.

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German Design Graduates