UPCOMING
DEATHLAB FOR DATA x DESIGN 2026 EXHIBITION
DeathLAB has been selected to participate in Data Through Design (DxD) — an annual artistic and civic exhibition, celebrating tangible and multimedia expressions of New York City’s Open Data. It provides space for creative engagement with data and new perspectives and understanding of its role in our society.
DeathLAB’s installation, HartLine explores mortality, ecology, and computation as intertwined planetary processes. Hart Island is NYC’s public burial ground. For over 150 years, the island has been reshaped by tides, weather, and the burial of more than one million unclaimed dead. The project presents a semi-controlled aqueous installation where metal, saline water, sediment, vegetation, and projection register cycles of decay and regrowth, engaging the city’s past and future in the liminal space where civic and sacred converge.
Exhibition Dates: March 21st – April 5th
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
A CONVERSATION WITH GSAPPX+
A conversation between Karla Rothstein and GSAPPX+ exploring a journey to infuse research, life, and practice with values, solidarity, and optimism.
HART ISLAND AUTUMN VISIT
On October 17th, @StudioRothstein will visit Hart Island, touring its central and southern regions with New York City Parks Department Rangers. The visit is the fourth organized by DeathLAB. The studio is investigating new potentials for Hart Island and is studying its burial sites, remnants of historic structures, and varied landscapes, such as the island’s salt marshes.
WESTBETH ARTISTS HOUSING
DeathLAB is pleased to announce another New York Community Trust-sponsored Civic Solidarity event, hosted at Westbeth Artists Housing in collaboration with Urban Lighting and nighttime designer Leni Schwedinger. The event will bring together two approaches to encouraging community and equity through civic design, each running through essential aspects of life that too often remain marginalized: death and the night.
The colloquium was an event designed to present and discuss feasible solutions to the scarcity of cemetery space, resource consumption, changes in the role of faith, and the need for memorialization among 21st century urban residents...
GLOBAL
SALZBURG INTERNATIONAL SUMMER ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS 2024
Our three week summer workshop provided immersive reflections on civic solidarity. The explorations of the workshop were driven by intersecting curiosities and motivations, fostering an environment where collaboration can thrive. Together we challenged preconceptions and embraced new perspectives, guided by critical conceptual lenses that allowed students to explore, create, and critique with meticulous care.
Our solo exhibition 'DeathLAB: Democratizing Death' at the SANAA-designed 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, in Kanazawa, Japan included DeathLAB’s Manifesto and Mission together with several design proposals demonstrating the power of design to integrate spaces of contemplation into civic life...
SALZBURG INTERNATIONAL SUMMER ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS 2024
Our three week summer workshop provided immersive reflections on civic solidarity. The explorations of the workshop were driven by intersecting curiosities and motivations, fostering an environment where collaboration can thrive. Together we challenged preconceptions and embraced new perspectives, guided by critical conceptual lenses that allowed students to explore, create, and critique with meticulous care.
Onsite: Karla Rothstein presents a prototype of Constellation Park, a public infrastructure coupling science and the civic-sacred. This new urban cemetery, a collaborative design by GSAPP DeathLAB and LATENT Productions, transforms our biomass into an elegant constellation of light...
The colloquium was an event designed to present and discuss feasible solutions to the scarcity of cemetery space, resource consumption, changes in the role of faith, and the need for memorialization among 21st century urban residents...
ADDITIONAL EVENTS
DDC Talks | DEATH AND THE CITY - DESIGNING THE NEW CIVIC-SACRED
New York, NY | Department of Design and Construction
AUGUST 2017
Asian Art Museum | REVIVING THE ENVIRONMENT - WAYS TO HONOR THE DEAD AND LIVING
San Francisco, CA | Samsung Hall
APRIL 2017
DeathLAB: DESIGNING THE CIVIC SACRED
Pasajes Arquitectura: desigño y innovación, No. 141
NOVEMBER 2016
7th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS: IMAGENS DA MORTE (IMAGES OF DEATH)
Sao Paolo, Brazil | University of Sao Paolo
JULY 2016
REMEMBERING THE FUTURE: NEW CEMETERIES AND THE PARADOX OF PLANNING FOR HETEROTOPIC SPACE
Bristol, England | University of the West of England
SEPTEMBER 2016
FUTURE CEMETERY DESIGN COMPETITION: SYLVAN CONSTELLATION - WINNER
Bristol, England | University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society, Arnos Vale Cemetery
FEBRUARY 2016
HERITAGE OF DEATH: LANDSCAPES, SENTIMENT AND PRACTICE
Stockholm, Sweden | Stockholm University, Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies
SEPTEMBER 2015
MONUMENTAL MASONRY COMPETITION: CONSTELLATION PARK - 3RD PLACE
London, England | Sir Soane's Museum and Bompass & Paar
NOVEMBER 2014
STUDIO X: EXTRAORDINARY COEXISTENCE / CAIRO'S CITY OF THE DEAD
Amman, Jordan | Columbia Global Centers
OCTOBER 2013