Jesper Authen (b. 1996) is a Norwegian interior architect.
He works in the intersection of architecture and philosophy. His designs are driven by a philosophical inquiry which underpins every design decision, resulting in simple spaces with a strong presence in its materiality and gestures.
After graduation, he aims to establish an independent research and design studio, along with a teaching practice.
Mortality, to buildings and people alike, is a fact which we spend a great deal of effort trying to either cover up, ignore or deny. It opens us up to the unsexy existential reality we share, and makes us vulnerable. It is no surprise that on a societal level we value the inception of a building rather than its inevitable end, and we often do not account for this when designing. But what if facing mortality is the key to a deeper approach to building reuse?
The Architecture of Mortality is a project which explores how societal attitudes to mortality impact how we conduct building reuse. These findings inform an intervention strategy for the ruined Nettleham Hall, anchored in a redesigned program for a crematorium and its ceremonies.
This project challenges the tacit understanding of treating a ruin like a museum object to be preserved, rather approaching it as cyclical and evolving. As such, the intervention strategy is one of deliberate demolition and subsequent reuse of discarded matter. This way you do not read the ruin in its form, but rather its fabric.
The program is a rethinking of a modern death ritual. Around 80% of all deceased in the UK will be processed at a crematorium. However, crematoria do not have a set ethos in place, and as such they become involuntary expressions of our attitudes to death and of the business of operating a crematorium. Nettleham Hall Crematorium is a radical departure from this, with the cremation playing an integral role in the ceremony.
