Death Tower

This thesis is on Death and Real Estate and the discourse is succinctly understood in the following terms.

Death is understood as the diminishing deathscape of local cemeteries which are loaded with social, cultural and architectural elements.
Real estate is defined as land plus anything permanently fixed to it, including buildings, sheds, and other items attached to the structure. Unlike other investments, real estate is dramatically affected by the condition of the immediate area where the property is located. With the exception of a global recession, real estate is affected primarily by local factors.

The pursue of the thesis topic of Death and Real Estate begins with the understanding of local deathscape straddling between three eras of colonial Singapore, 1980s and the present Singapore. Through the research, an acute erasure of cemeteries is observed. More then 500,000 graves have been exhumed and cremated or disposed.

The relationship between local deathscape and real estate of the three eras is being examined. It is concluded through research and analysis that the local authorities view the relationship of death and real estate as an inverse one.

The next term of discussion is to challenge the existing relationship between death and real estate. A discussion is set up to challenge the repercussion of the current inverse relationship and the authority’s strategy of reduction and erasure impact on our social fabric. The authority’s vision of keeping deathscape hidden, sanitised and orderly have result in the reducing and erasing of space, ground, culture, awareness and importance of death.

The strategy that this thesis has choosen to adopt is one of addition and compensation in addressing death and real estate. As the fundamental of high-rise is to compensate real estate, this thesis will design a high-rise deathscape.
And as the fundamental of deathscape is a place for the dead to go back to the ground, a high-rise deathscape will have to compensate both ground and real estate. Thus, the reinvention of ground and burial.

This thesis will design a rammed earth tower to house the dead in ground that allows them to go through the process of decomposition and returned to ground. Given time, this new building typology will evolved and morphed into the natural landscape.

Death tower will be made entirely out of earth

Rammed Earth. Live Earth. Baked Earth

New Ground, New Burial, New Structure.

Tower of Death

Death Tower by kit lee in Singapore won the WA Award Cycle 5. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.