In Chinese culture, death is not the ending of existence but rather a transformation from the worldly realm as a human, to the otherworld as an ancestor. In the interdependent families of Hong Kong, it is vital to ensure a “good death” for family to cross over as a benevolent spirit, whom in turn will reward the living with blessings. Yet an intense fear of death simultaneously coexists with filial reverence; considered a pollutant, it is thought that even talk of the topic will bring bad luck. This coexistence of fear and reverence defines many rituals and belief principles in daily life regardless of age or education.

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 Over time, Hong Kong has advanced as a medicalised society, but complete rejection of death has pervaded. The depreciative economic effect of and contemporary socio-political constraints around death have forced society to acquire new habits – new traditions – such as rushing the elderly from their care homes to the hospital to die rather than live. Residential care homes have come to be waiting terminals for death, the clinical, confining design diminishing the cultural roles of aging in Hong Kong society. In pacifying the dying process, the major life and cultural event of aging has reshaped as an illness and the traditional “good death” has been substituted by institutionalisation. This design thesis questions current care strategies and investigates spatial alternatives for care homes to redefine the future of “good death”, reconciling with mortality in dignity.

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The research for this design thesis will be documented on this site as the work progresses. Should you have any comments, suggestions, and/or would like to collaborate, please feel free to contact me.