Regenerative Remains - Transforming Death into Landscape Healing

Abstract

Current funeral materials prioritise preservation over ecological integration, perpetuating extractive practices that damage environments while reinforcing cultural death denial. Extending the emerging trajectory of regenerative death care, this paper proposes regenerative biomaterials using post-mortem resource recovery via alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation). Effluent burial vessels and bone-ash tree guards demonstrate life-centred design methodologies, positioning soil ecosystems and native vegetation as design stakeholders. The research reveals how biomaterials designed for ecological wellbeing create regenerative infrastructure addressing both human grief and landscape healing needs. Biodesign materials are designed to nurture soil microbiomes and support native plant establishment over 24-month decomposition cycles to challenge industrial death care’s resistance to natural cycles. This work contributes a methodological deepening of regenerative death care beyond harm reduction, establishing methodologies for designing with more-than-human agencies through speculative material experimentation. The project reimagines death not as waste requiring disposal, but as a resource that contributes to ecosystem regeneration.