We studied what is typically unseen and exists in the depths below surfaces. Hart Island’s landscape holds a contentious history of burying bodies society generally wanted to keep unseen. Mycelium, the root structure of a fungus, exists everywhere, all around us, unseen. We are mobilizing mycelium’s role in the decomposition process – creating connections between mycelium, landscapes, bodies, and communities to create a landscape capable of holding the deceased while creating a burial practice in symbiosis with the landscape. How to begin to repair? The body, the substrate, the mycelium, the landscape, individual and collective histories collide, merge, infuse.

Collective burial in trenches is the existing burial condition at Hart Island. Until 2021, the trench digging was performed by inmates held at Rikers Island. The practice of digging trenches harms the landscape by killing trees and compacting soil. We propose two forests, one that can survive the rising sea levels, and the other that will produce the materials needed for our architecture, funerary shells, and community. We are proposing a meadowed landscape filled with native plants whose fruiting bodies are essential for the production of our burial shells. The meadow lies on the existing trenches of the oldest burials at Hart Island whose records have been lost. The bodies will be laid to rest in intentional dialogue with those that came before. Reuse of burial sites over time will gradually raise the level of the ground.

Our proposed buildings are small, intimate, and built from the landscape. The facade is made of birch bark, its structure from the cedar trees, infilled with mycelium insulation panels. The buildings lie within the landscape and have three typologies, housing space for the production of bark cloth, papermaking, and ceremonies. All of the practices present on this landscape are held in community and are connected to the land. The burial shells are produced collaboratively and rituals are open to all loved ones. The public is welcome to participate through offerings in craftsmanship, horticulture, and mycelium cultivation. Community is built around crafts, landscape, and the interdependent cycles of life and death.