An Urban Cemetery for the People: Rethinking Rituals in Beijing

Abstract

This thesis proposes an urban cemetery in Beijing, China. Today Beijing faces many challenges in relation to current funerary practices. With the increasing population of death and rising costs and environmental impact of burials, current cemeteries have been pushed out of the margins of the city. These issues have caused public expressions of mourning to be removed from the daily life of city residents. In response this project proposes a new form of urban cemetery that can bring death rituals back to everyday life as well as be environmentally sustainable and socially focused. The proposal offers a new type of death ritual so that the memory of the deceased can engage with the living.