Design for Death: “I Wish to Be Rain” by Studio PSK
Photo credit: harrytrimble.co.uk
A recent Designboom competition titled “Design for Death” highlighted many innovative end-of-life creations, from a biodegradable coffin to a postmortem suit that encourages mushroom growth.
Amongst the prize winners of the “Design for Death” competition was the London based Studio PSK. The designers envisioned “a micro airship that could transform humans into rain after they die” by “trigger[ing] rain droplets by lifting and dispersing cremation ash into clouds, which water vapor can then condense around.”
The designers said their vision for the invention was inspired by the relationship humans have with the natural world today – and in particular, in our ability to affect and control natural phenomena. They wondered if a person could impact the environment “not just by their actions” in waking life, but by “literally transform[ing] themselves into types of natural spectacle” after they die.
Photo credit: harrytrimble.co.uk
This radical transformation of the human body is catalyzed by the decision to first cremate the deceased. After cremation, the family of the deceased will receive “a vessel containing the loved one’s remains and a dormant aerostat.”
Once the bereaved feels ready, they “simply turn the top segment, opening a valve to a helium tank which fills a weather balloon with buoyant gas.” The capsulated ashes of the deceased are sent up into the sky with a turn of the device’s middle section against the bottom. “As the sealed capsule ascends and fades out of sight,” explains Studio PSK, “it becomes increasingly pressurized. At the point [when] it reaches the troposphere, the highest point at which clouds [are] formed, the capsule bursts.” In this moment, the ashes of the deceased are dispersed into the clouds above.
Studio PSK will present a more developed prototype at the NFDA International Convention and Expo in Texas in October, 2013. As a design with an acute eye for the needs of people and planet, the “I Wish to Be Rain” concept could be–quite literally–an uplifting option for many in the future.
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