Tom Kundig Designs Funerary Urn

Design lovers have plenty of options when it comes to modern and contemporary cradles—David Netto, DucDuc, Oeuf—but the pickings are slim on the other, graver end of the human lifespan. Tom Kundig to the rescue. The architect has designed “The Final Turn,” a fresh take on a funerary urn, in collaboration with Seattle-based Greg Lundgren Monuments.

The urn, which could pass for a wee Anish Kapoor work rather than a cutting-edge ash keeper, consists of two deliberately askew halves of a blackened steel or bronze sphere that measures eight inches in diameter. “While the sphere implies perfection and eternity, the offset nature of the urn is inspired by the people left behind–the people whose lives are thrown off-kilter by the passing of their loved one,” says Kundig. A threaded cap on the lower half provides access to the receptacle for the remains, and mementos can be tucked inside a compartment in the top half.

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Tom Kundig of Seattle studio Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects has designed an extension to a steel pipe factory that uses giant pipes as architectural elements. (more…)