In the context of accelerating climate degradation, anthropocentric worldviews that position humans above ecological systems are increasingly difficult to sustain. This project argues that death practices are a critical site through which these hierarchies are materially and culturally reinforced. By reframing death as an ecological process through the practice of sky burial, it explores how alternative death practices might support more ecocentric relationships between humans and the non-human world. Sky burial is a practice in which the human body is consumed by animals and natural forces, returning nutrients to trophic cycles. Using British Columbia as a testing ground, the project proposes a sited prototype that operates as a globally adaptable framework. A series of pavilions organizes a multifaith sequence of entry, preparation, viewing, reflection, gathering, and release, guiding visitors along a journey toward the alpine burial sites. The project does not seek to replace existing traditions, but to expand agency by introducing ecological donation as an additional option across belief systems. It asks how architecture, an inherently anthropocentric act, might facilitate an ecocentric outcome. The design responds through strategies of multifaith programming, site sublimity, celestial geometry, on-site material sourcing, reflective planting, and model adaptability. The architecture is temporary, with most structures designed to degrade and be reclaimed by the landscape over time, acting as a transitional scaffold for a shifting worldview. Ecocentrism is evaluated through both ecological and cultural measures. Nutrient redistribution supports non-human species, while the spatial practice reshapes how death is experienced and understood. By situating human death within ongoing ecological cycles, the project proposes a transferable methodology for integrating our mortality into living systems and challenging anthropocentric hierarchies across global contexts.
Léa Papillon (Thu,) studied this question.