Death redesigned
The “Death by Design” exhibition, organised by the NUS Division of Industrial Design (DID), aims to reimagine the concept of death in contemporary society. Supported by DesignSingapore Council and sponsored by Nirvana Memorial Garden, the exhibition showcases a total of 13 imaginative projects by DID students that investigate the role of design in death and challenge perceptions surrounding this typically taboo topic.
Speaking at the launch of the exhibition on 14 October at the National Design Centre, project supervisor Assistant Professor Hans Tan from DID called the showcase a landmark since it was the first time the students had dealt with this subject. “We’re grateful to Nirvana Memorial Garden for daring to take this journey with us by sponsoring the student works which redefine death-related products and services. This exhibition is interesting because usually when we work with industry collaborators it’s for commercialisation purposes, but in this case we just wanted to get people talking about death; to just push some limits. So we tried to propose ideas that are more speculative in nature. It certainly sets us thinking,” he said.
One such project is Cornerstone by Desiree Lim (Year 3) and John Zheng (Year 4). Their design turns cremains into stones that can be scattered without disturbing the natural landscape, while providing a personal sanctuary for remembrance. Desiree and John incorporated organic binding elements into their design, which dissolve over time allowing the ashes to return to the earth.
There is also intimate, designed by Fabian Ong (Year 3) and Lee Hsiao Fong (Year 4). The duo wanted to create a less vicarious experience for people reminiscing about their loved ones. Building on the tradition of tomb sweeping, they went a step further by creating a niche with a disappearing epitaph. The inscription is revealed only upon cleaning the niche with water. The words evaporate a while later, symbolising the loss. While encouraging regular upkeep of the niche, the act is one of respect, intimacy and remembrance.
intimate allows for a more personal form of remembrance as one is required to clean the niche with water to reveal the details of the departed
How about an underwater virtual columbarium to solve the problem of land scarcity? PhD student Raymond Hon’s Sea burial+ is an urn designed with hydrodynamic properties so that it spins as it sinks, maintaining its trajectory while descending into the ocean bed. Made of three-dimensional printed water soluble polyvinyl acetate, the urn dissolves in a matter of days, leaving the cremains in situ. The location of the “drop” is recorded using GPS and the data visualisation of all these sea burial locations can be accessed via an app.
Sea burial+ is an underwater burial system for the modern age
Other projects at the exhibition included a pendulum made from ashes of the deceased which generates light when swung, a QR code made into a self-inking stamp that contains a personal message left by the deceased, and an urn in the form of a floral wreath which offers a dignified farewell for unclaimed bodies and celebrates the gift of life.
The launch also honoured the winners of the “Urn” Design Platform, a 13-week vertical design competition carried out in collaboration with Nirvana Memorial Garden in 2015, which challenged students to reimagine the archetype of an urn. Nine of the projects in the exhibition resulted from the challenge.
The “Death by Design” exhibition will run until 31 October at the National Design Centre. Admission is free.
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The launch of the unique exhibition drew a sizeable crowd
