{"id":112189,"date":"2022-07-08T07:02:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T05:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=112189"},"modified":"2022-07-05T11:16:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T09:16:02","slug":"claesson-koivisto-rune-designs-biodegradable-burial-urn-made-from-wool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/claesson-koivisto-rune-designs-biodegradable-burial-urn-made-from-wool\/","title":{"rendered":"Claesson Koivisto Rune designs biodegradable burial urn made from wool"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Commissioned by Systrarna Ocklind<\/a>, an independent funeral home in Stockholm<\/a> run by sisters Anna and Sofia Ocklind, the Ocke urn is designed to biodegrade<\/a> almost entirely in a matter of months, according to Claesson Koivisto Rune<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A name tag can be added to personalise the urn \u00a9<\/strong> Ida Borg<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The studio used wool to form the urn as it says the material provides a sense of warmth and protection while reducing the product’s impact on the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Textile burial cowlings have been used for bodies and caskets since the beginning of history,” Claesson Koivisto Rune co-founder M\u00e5rten Claesson told Dezeen. “Probably it is a question of nursing and care that lies deeply rooted within us, regardless of tradition or belief.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Wool is also of course a natural fibre that has been used to warm humans throughout history, with the unique ability to hold warmth both when dry and moist,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In this case, these functions are of course symbolic and that is where the importance lies. There is a comforting symbolism in the fact that everything goes back to the earth 100 per cent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sweden, the ashes of the deceased are generally collected in a bag and delivered from the crematorium to the funeral home in a recycled cardboard box in accordance with tradition and regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cardboard box is then discarded before the ashes are transferred to an urn made from ceramic or wood, which is buried in the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, Claesson Koivisto Rune designed the woollen Ocke urn to fit around this cardboard box like a “kind of shroud” in order to prolong the packaging’s useful life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The woolen urn was designed to fit around a cardboard box holding the ashes \u00a9<\/strong> Ida Borg<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“As a designer, this may be the project of ours where it was most important not to over-design,” Claesson said. “It’s not just about the inherent dignity of the materials but also about being humble in its design.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The urn, developed alongside manufacturer Falk\u00f6pings Tr\u00e4industri, is constructed from sections of woolen fabric that are sewn together with woollen thread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their connective seams are left exposed and serve as decorative features, creating a “ribboned effect” that lends the urn a softer appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Ocke urn is made from wool and a leather closure doubles as a handle \u00a9<\/strong> Ida Borg<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“Even though these burial urns are intended to be interred in the ground, they are held by the bereaved before being buried,” said the studio. “And so developing a softer, warmer design was important.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ocke urn also features details made of vegetable-tanned leather, which would take considerably longer to biodegrade than the wool or the cardboard. This includes a closure that can be looped to form a handle and used to lower the urn securely into the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the design represents a break from tradition within a highly conservative industry, Claesson argues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is an unusual assignment for us,” he explained. “The funeral homes of Sweden are dominated by a few chains and Systrarna Ocklind is a very rare independent funeral home.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The two sisters are daring to offer an alternative, also by introducing an urn that is so different to what anyone has seen before \u2013 and this in a trade where you don’t break with tradition easily.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of designers have started rethinking polluting burial methods in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TU Delft<\/a> researcher Bob Hendrikx created a living coffin made from mycelium<\/a> that helps bodies decompose faster, while graduates from London’s Royal College of Art developed a way to form artificial reef structures<\/a> from cremated ashes in a bid to provide a “meaningful funeral service” that regenerates endangered ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commissioned by Systrarna Ocklind, an independent funeral home in Stockholm run by sisters Anna and Sofia Ocklind, the Ocke urn is designed to biodegrade almost entirely in a matter of months, according to Claesson Koivisto Rune. The studio used wool to form the urn as it says the material provides a sense of warmth and protection while reducing the product’s impact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Swedish architecture and design studio Claesson Koivisto Rune has combined wool and vegetable-tanned leather to craft a cremation urn, which will naturally break down in soil once it is buried","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11270,5838,16114,20591,20592,17830],"supplier":[20588,20589,1305],"class_list":["post-112189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodegradability","tag-bioeconomy","tag-covers","tag-naturalfibre","tag-urns","tag-wool","supplier-claesson-koivisto-rune","supplier-systarna-ocklind","supplier-university-of-technology-delft-nl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112189"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=112189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}