Santos:  A new trend is developing in Brazil: a shortage of space in cemeteries has created a need for new methods of housing the dead population. Now the deceased have their own skyscrapers.

According to Emporis, a global provider of building data, there are about a dozen towers worldwide, either completed or under construction, whose purpose is to hold graves. So far these cemetery high-rise buildings are all located in Brazil. Emporis defines a high-rise building as an enclosed structure with 12 or more floors.

Mikel Allende, one of Emporis' editors for South America, says that this trend is now spreading to other countries. "In Bogota [Colombia] there are also plans underway for a vertical cemetery. I personally think that this trend will increase in the years to come."

Crowning this development is the construction of the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica in Santos (Sao Paulo). With 32 floors and 108 meters (354 feet) it will lead the ranking of the tallest buildings with graves usage. Its completion is scheduled for 2006.