Date of Award
Spring 6-1-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Architecture (MArch)
Department
Architecture
First Advisor
Jess Myers
Second Advisor
Ijlal Muzaffar
Abstract
My thesis seeks to design my grandfather’s cemetery to regain a piece of my personal memory. It also seeks to situate this issue in the contemporary context of the pandemic, which helped inspire my topic. I started my thesis in a very turbulent year. I found myself missing family members far away on the other side of the earth.
How are they doing now?
I suddenly missed my Grandfather’s village, which I had only visited once a year prior to the great pandemic. My Grandfather passed away when I was very young. I get along well with my Grandmother, but I rarely hear the story of my Grandfather from my Grandmother, and his photos have always hung on the wall of the living room, which conspicuously reminds me of his look. Maybe my Grandmother misses him the same way. When I went back, that photo was no longer there.
Does that mean this memory over?
I didn't remember my Grandfather’s Cemetery because I only participated in his funeral ceremony. The news broadcasts that public cemetery prices are getting higher and higher. Can the pain of losing a loved one be measured by money? No one really mentioned this pain. I started to reflect and decided I want to tell this story by rebuilding my Grandfather's cemetery.
Recommended Citation
Wang, Xin, "Dead space: the changing discourse of death: how to design a contemporary and enduring funeral practice" (2021). Masters Theses. 662.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/662
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Comments
View exhibition online: Xin Wang, Death Space