American startup Recompose has opened a funeral home in Seattle designed by architecture firm Olson Kundig, where human remains are composted and turned into a nutrient-rich soil that can nurture new plant life.
Set in a converted warehouse in the city's SoDo district, the facility is one of the first to make use of a burgeoning practice known as natural organic reduction  ? or human composting, which was legalised in the state of Washington in 2019.
This sees the body of the deceased placed on a bed of plant materials inside a stainless steel vessel, purpose-built to accelerate the natural process of decomposition.
Recompose has opened a human composting facility in Seattle. Above photo by Austin Wilson
Over the course of 60 days, their remains are converted into one cubic yard of fertile soil ? enough to fill the bed of a pickup truck. Loved ones can then take this compost home and use it to nourish their garden, plant trees in memory of the deceased or donate it to a local conservation area. The aim is to offer a less polluting alternative to cremation or burial, which are hugely emissions and resource intensive, and instead create a meaningful funeral practice that allows people to give back to nature.
"Clients have shared with us that the idea of their person becoming soil is comforting," Recompose founder Katrina Spade told Dezeen.
"Growing new life out of that soil is profound and the small ritual of planting, using soil created from a loved one's bod...