Beautiful things are best when they are brief. The very notion best put together to brief transience of life. For the living, to be able to help the deceased pass on is a great act of salvation. Gaatha got the opportunity to design and propose such space in the form of a facility in the foothills of Swayambhunath Stupa, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site. The location already is a fully operating cremation ground for specific cultural groups of Tamang and Gurung people where the process takes place in a traditional manner of burning with firewood in semi-open pavilions. At around the phase of the global pandemic COVID-19, there came a need for such a facility. Also, an electrically operated system creates lesser carbon emission and takes less time allowing efficiency in the process.

The ritualistic practices, in the modern day, have lost their essence in some sort due to convenience and accessibility such that the process of carrying the body to the cremation platform, supposed to be a final rite and journey to be carried out by both the living and the deceased, is now performed to a very near reach by a vehicular medium. Along with this, the families and close ones related to the deceased who come there in a time of grief and contemplation, do not get to contemplate the event due to unmanaged public spaces and circulations, ultimately causing chaos around. To address the situation, the design is inspired by the Buddhist concept of gardens within the landscape as a medium to become a threshold of transient beings. Coherently sequenced as three gardens, Udhyana (उद्यान), namely, Prasthan (प्रस्थान) Udhyana; arrival for one, departure for the other, Bodhi (बोधि) Udhyana; contemplative spaces and Shokh (शोक) Udhyana; grieving and departure, the journey for both the living and the deceased is well-organized taking in reference all the necessary spaces and elements to be incorporated in the planning after having multiple interactions with locals and practicing priests/lama on the right way of conducting the very ritual.

The very idea of life form is an energy and the elements of nature being the whole of all existence, the crematorium is embraced by a planned fabricated landscape with selective native vegetation, symbolizing the impermanence, from the entrance to the cremation hall which includes open as well as semi-open spaces for one to be in the moment of grief, all including ample green areas to aid the spatial experience. Also, the majority of the built structure is made of rammed earthen walls on the surface level providing warmth in a shelter while the facility also includes a cornea-donation service and provision of mortuary located underground. Necessary facilities of administration and in-house management with sanitary rooms are designed along with necessary technical rooms needed for the electrically operated system within the underground and surface level creating no disturbance in primary activities.

The interplay of light in the building and open spaces along with the critically analyzed nature of each space to have a respective ambiance, the design takes on a minimal approach in creating a series of connected sacred and contemplative spaces. While providing comfort and accessibility, there has been no compromise in making a place where events would require to be rightfully following and fulfilling all rituals. For the public mass right outside the crematorium, where pedestrian movement occurs in abundance from early morning, it appears like a few floating slabs amidst the park as seen from the road level, creating a safe and undisturbed architectural experience in and out.