Housing the Dead

In times of accelerating urbanization and densification, cemeteries face the challenge of keeping up their relevance as a public urban space. A series of interesting social phenomena are taking place in some metropolitan cities in China, in which the burials plot prices outstrip housing; some people are having to be buried in commercial housing as a “private cemetery”.

In order to meet the increasing number of people (citizen, migrants) who can gain a place for the body to rest, as well as the place where temporality of death is processed, the dead themselves gain a social role in which biological events are replaced by rituals. Thus, in deciding future strategies to accommodate the dead, communities are adapting ancient traditions. New functions of cemetery and funeral rituals are inserted into the community, offering a “cemetery plot” to adapt the phenomenon of “can't afford to die” in most cities of China.

Housing the Dead breaks the boundary between living and dead providing improved death space without the loss of physical space to mourn, as well as keeping Chinese ancient traditions of a dead culture. The bereaved can seek consolation in an apartment privately, in their own family shrine space: photographs on the table, a favorite piece of music, and quirky family sayings all permit the dead a continued foothold in the world of the living.