Ouroboros of Mass Burials Part 2 Project 2023 Lucas PereiraAmiti Singh Columbia University | USA Unique to the general practices of death adopted in New York City, Hart Island has embodied distinctive cycles of life and death. Since the 1800s, it has undertaken the responsibility of naturally burying the unclaimed bodies of the city. It is a site where the tradition of permanence and linearity of burials holds less sway. A similar concept is represented through the agnostic symbol of Ouroboros - which symbolizes an eternal cycle of life and death.Inspired by this concept and Hart Island's vulnerability to sea-level rise, this project elevates the exercise of mass burials on the island while prolonging the time that it takes to reconcile back into the water. Through a spatial performance between delicate space frames and earth, these mounds continuously morph to respond to the change in time, variations of grief, human/non-human loss, and temporality of models of marking life and death of all scales of loss. This creates a system of burial that isn't static, just like life and death.Synergising of what is below and above transforms the idea of grief and reconciliation to one where you can experience loss, memory, and healing through spiritual and physical connections with the landscape and architecture. Tutor(s) Karla Rothstein