New rituals and concepts for 'humusation': IDE designs in CUBE Design museum’s (Re)Design Death exhibition

The (Re)Design Death exhibition showcases contemporary designs around saying goodbye, dying, mourning and remembering. Around 50 objects explore how designers, often as a result of a personal experience, give substance to the needs and rituals that exist around death. 15 IDE master's students explored how design can support the acceptance of humusation, a new form of funeral. Their designs can be seen at the exhibition.

Burials and cremations are not only harmful to the environment, but also take up a lot of space. As the world population continues to grow, there is a call for more sustainable ways of disposing of dead bodies. One such approach could be humusation. The corpse, without a coffin, is put under a layer top soil and, over a period of 12 months, broken down into a fertile humus. The humus can be used to plant a tree in one's own garden or in a specially designated area.

For their research the students cooperated with Susanne Bij Afscheid, an undertaker specialised in personalised and meaningful burials. The project was initiated by the Delft Design for End of Life Lab. The designs were developed during the Advanced Concept Design (ACD) course of the Integrated Product Design (IPD) master. IDE’s Marijke Idema supervised the students.

The exhibition can be seen until 24 January 2021 in the CUBE Design Museum in Kerkrade. You can also visit the exhibition in virtual reality in the <link library over-the-library tu-delft-library-presenteert virtual-exhibition-redesign-death>TU Delft Library until 27 March.