Xiangjian Zou and Weixuan Lan

This project hopes to exposure the relationship between life and death through “dead space” design, so the concept is ”Being towards Death”. It is a conversation between the living and the dead which shows that life and death are not an independent existence or the opposite, in contrast, they are a changing and adynamic process, which should be mixed and symbiotic.

Generally, when it comes to life and death, people are always fearful or afraid, this design aims to arouse people's courage to face death directly through the creation and spatial metaphor of crematorium, cemetery, and temple. The three buildings have adopted different strategies in design, the crematorium uses an “overlapping” strategy, the cemetery uses a “respect landscape” technique, and the temple uses a “light and shadow” architectural strategy to symbolize “life”, “death”, and “death and life”.

When people walk into the “dead space”, they can have a clearer understanding of life and death and have a new comprehension of their own life just as Martin Heidegger said,” When you are close to death indefinitely, you can truly understand the meaning of life.”

Being towards death is a dialogue between life and death, an attitude.