Nesting: Cemetery for the Unclaimed

Eric Cheng’s project proposes a new twist on memorial architecture: a series of temporary woven structures for gatherings or personal contemplation to honor unknown members of society. His constructions poetically transform fallen sticks and other found materials into large, sculptural structures meant to be destroyed in the winter and rebuilt each spring, echoing natural cycles of death and renewal. Although this project remains highly experimental in form, Cheng outlined a new kind of ritual space that provides a contemporary take on funerary and memorial traditions around the globe. Eric Cheng is a designer at the Chicago architecture firm SMDP.