Blooming Burial
Spring 2025The modern American funeral industry began approximately 150 years ago with the assassination of former president Abraham Lincoln. In an effort to maintain his remains for the lengthy funeral procession, morticians pioneered early embalming techniques which would eventually lay the foundation for the modern industry. Decades after the advent of embalming, cremation emerged as a newfound method of dealing with the deceased. However, both methods of processing the decesed resulted in incredible land and energy usage, and often resulted in detrimental side effects with the harsh chemicals utililzed and carbon dioxide produced. Modern alternative burial methods that reduce environmental impact have emerged but stymied by the large scale funeral industry and also long held death phobic beliefs of what “proper” burials should look like.
This project posits the premise of how one might effect changes in public perceptions on death by marrying the friendly and welcoming branding of LEGO with a subject as touchy and divisive as death. The Blooming Burial reimagines the LEGO brand identity as more than a toy, and a potential gateway towards more open and thoughtful discussions of death practices.
The original depiction of the model on the right featured specific flowers and plants associated with death across different cultures. From left to right: Red Spider Lily, Hawthorn Tree, Pomegranates. These were eventually reduced in scale to the pomgranate and hawthorn trees in order to maintain scale cohesion.