Death in the city

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001-environment and resource

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002-seperation

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003-bias caused by death

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concept

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aboveground plan

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underground plan

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section

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rendering

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rendering

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rendering

This is a space open to the public, filled with concrete cubes of varying heights, symbolizing different life lengths. Each cube is engraved with a QR code. People can scan them to get some unexpected information. It may be a paragraph of text, a picture, or a story, but they are all related to death. Here the relationship between the living and the dead will be re-established.

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rendering

"The most surprising impression is the appearance of personal imprints, such as names or numbers that can evoke memories, as a representative medium or a way to express sadness." In the current digital age, the deceased Various information can be uploaded to the terminal. People can retrieve information about the deceased by touching the name on the screen. This information may be slowly forgotten by people, but it is converted into data and stays here forever. Traditional tombstones only provide two functions, one is to record limited information (name, date of birth and death, etc.) of the deceased, and the other is to provide a memorial place for the living. The occupation of land by tombstones will be a serious problem in the future. After we have solved the recording of the deceased's information with a new method, should there be a new tombstone form to replace the traditional tombstone?

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significance

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Rui Liu is a motivated interior designer who graduated from civil engineering and worked as a junior engineer for 2 years. During the year of studying interior design in GSA, I not only gained a new understanding of interior design but also came into contact with various ideas and concepts, which deepened my passion for exploring interior design.

Speculative design is the most important part of what I have learned here. It reminds me that design is not just a problem-solving tool, it can also ask questions to make people think. In my postgraduate study, I tried to incorporate this concept into my project.

‘The fear and worries about death is natural but not rational.’
——Epicurus

For the stage3 project, I chose death, a topic that people don’t want to discuss, as my theme. After research, I found that death in the city has many negative effects on us. For example, the environmental pollution and waste of resources caused by the disposal of the remains, the separation of the living and the deceased caused by traditional death-related activities, and the biases caused by our attitude towards death, etc. Based on these, I tried to conceive a new type of dead space that can solve these problems. It can not only meet the basic needs related to death but also provide people with a space to think about death and connect with the public.

The final site of this project is located in the park of each city, shortening the physical distance between the living and the dead. Focusing on underground space saves land resources, and changes the traditional funeral and commemoration methods while increasing the space for public service. In terms of the atmosphere, this space appropriately deprives people of the perception of space to provide people with more thinking space and possibilities. Everyone has their own different opinions on the final thinking of death, and this space provides such a place and opportunity for thinking.

Remember， we will die 🙂

(here is a PDF below which is a short story combined with renderings, hope you enjoy.)