From Life to Life: a Critical Stance on Traditional Memorial Practices Part 1 Project 2019 Flora Sallis-Chandler Newcastle University | UK From Life to Life proposes an alternative to the current linear and outdated end of life options. Instead it offers an opportunity to give back after death. In traditional memorial practices; each cremation requires 105L fuel with 160kg CO2 released. In each burial, 14L embalming fluid is used and 65 kg steel and 24 ft timber are put into the ground. We need a more sustainable, cyclical end to life. This proposal utilises the natural decomposition process to turn human remains into fertile soil for growing yew trees. Clippings from the yew, a natural by-product, can be purified to form the raw ingredients for chemotherapy drug, docetaxel. For each body donated, nine weeks of life-saving treatment is made. The yew, famed for their mythically symbolic immortality, have been the pride of English churchyards for thousands of years and will form a spiritual memorial garden, within an existing unused carpark. Cyclical approaches to environmental strategies aim to reduce energy use, heat is harvested from the decomposer, an exothermic reaction, and reused for drying the yew clippings and heating inhabited spaces. From ashes to ashes, dust to dust? No; from life to life. Tutor(s)