Can the association of the Potter’s Field with abandonment, nameless bodies, and unseen violence be altered by situating it in the heart of the city? This project sited in the urban context of Franklin Park seeks to ensure that the unknown dead are fully respected. By elevating the nameless to the status of the named and giving them a central location in the cemetery and the park, it ensures visibility and acknowledgement. A central group of graves is embraced by nature through manipulation of topography, forming a relationship between visitors and tombstones. Structural planting provides views to the potter’s field from species locations along the pathways.
Passing by the funeral hall, is the circular lookout. Under the shade of trees in the distance, the forest and newly planted groves of trees surround and define the burial area. Each body marked with a tombstone made of remnants from the old hospital site. As you walk further, your eye is drawn to the lake, where the sky and fog mingle, and the distant vegetation draws your mind away to contemplate individuality and community, life and death. Franklin park's scenic hill slopes are marked in moments by headstones symbolizing each life that has passed, commemorating those who died without a body, There is no abandonment, only inclusivity; no nameless corpse, but community; no shadow of violence, only healing and the infinite peace that nature brings.
In my research, I found the impression of Potter's Field to be very strong and brutal, necessitating acknowledgment and reversal, representing these concepts. If the cemetery were located in Franklin Park, from an urban context perspective, I hope the graveyard could better integrate into the city and people's lives, reversing the existing notions. Although solemn, initially, I seek a harmonious yet intense relationship.
I aim to place my focus in the middle, utilizing the terrain beyond Franklin to allow people to view the central burial site from various angles, including the pond, the burial site, and the city's circulation used by people. One path is for rituals, including vehicles transporting bodies, daily maintenance of the graveyard, and, simultaneously, another path is more organic, connecting different small sites allowing people to pass through this area daily.