What beyond ashes does an urn hold?

Designing Modular Ritual Urns for 3D-Printed Ceramics
In Cooperation with Additivum GmbH

The enactment of the 2025 Reform of the Funeral Act in Rhineland-Palatinate signifies a critical restructuring of the German culture of remembrance. By partially dissolving the mandatory cemetery obligation, this legislative change facilitates a transition of mourning practices from public institutions to private and communal spheres. This shift is further driven by globalization and changing family distributions, which frequently render traditional cemeteries less accessible to subsequent generations. While public cemeteries remain culturally significant, there is an increasing requirement for artifacts that provide a structured place for remembrance without isolating the bereaved from a collective system.

This project presents PRISMA, a modular commemorative system developed in collaboration with Additivum GmbH. Utilizing ceramic additive manufacturing, the research addresses the functional decoupling inherent in the modern German burial system, where the over-urn serves as a symbolic shell rather than a primary vessel for the remains. The PRISMA object consists of a core ceramic vessel, detachable modular facets, and a ritual stand. It facilitates a ritual of exchange where the bereaved take facets home as "Reverse Grave Goods," maintaining a tangible connection to the deceased across geographical distances. A central premise of this work is the rejection of digital remembrance as a primary tool for grief. Digital platforms often lack the tactile presence and symbolic power required for effective ritualized interaction and can create unwanted distance in the grieving process. 

PRISMA provides a physical alternative: a modular vessel that refracts the singular memory of the deceased into tangible facets. These modules allow for a collective distribution of memory, establishing a symbolic place for the dead that remains part of a shared, collective system of remembrance.