November 24, 2012 -- Updated 1607 GMT (0007 HKT)
Floating cemeteries drifting along
Hong Kong's coastline could be the solution to the country's lack of
land space and aging population.
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November 24, 2012 -- Updated 1607 GMT (0007 HKT)
Cemeteries in Hong Kong have evolved from land graveyards in the 1940s to today's columbaria.
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November 24, 2012 -- Updated 1607 GMT (0007 HKT)
Bread Studio says
its "Floating Eternity" is eco-conscious, with its columbarium wall
rotating from tidal energy and greenery on deck.
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November 24, 2012 -- Updated 1607 GMT (0007 HKT)
The bamboo gardens
and the food court account for Chinese families who like to practice the
tradition of bringing food when they visit their ancestors.
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November 24, 2012 -- Updated 1607 GMT (0007 HKT)
During busy seasons
such as Chung Yeung and Ching Ming festival, the "Floating Eternity"
will stay docked at various piers, according to the company.
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November 24, 2012 -- Updated 1607 GMT (0007 HKT)
Bread Studio hopes that visiting the floating cemetery will become a way of family bonding.
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A floating cemetery in Hong Kong?
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- New sketches from a company have proposed the creation of a floating cemetery
- This will be popular during the city's Cheung Yeung and Ching Ming Festival
- A shortage of space and a rise in death rates has caused a shortage of cemetery space
- A maritime mortuary does not exist but other unusual storing options for the dead do
New sketches from a
company in the city on China's southern coast have proposed the creation
of a floating cemetery. Designed as a possible solution to Hong Kong's
shortage building space -- particularly for graveyards - Bread Studio
has come up with "Floating Eternity."
The structure would hold a
rotating wall of 370,000 niches which are compartments allotted for
people to place their urn containing the remains of their loved ones.
Designed like a cruise ship, the floating cemetery would anchor along
Hong Kong's coastline, docking at a designated pier for visitors who
want to visit their deceased relatives.
"Architects are always
made to think about life when designing buildings but not many think
about death," said Benny Lee, a designer at Bread Studio. "I was
watching TV and saw a group of people encouraged by the government to
scatter their loved ones' ashes in the sea and noticed that the boat
they were using to transport people out was really small. I thought why
not make that boat bigger, better and more enjoyable for families."
"Floating Eternity" would
also offer amenities for its visitors. Complimenting Chinese rituals
that involve bringing food during cemetery visits, the floating cemetery
plans to have a grass deck for people to set up picnics or a restaurant
onboard.
This would be
particularly popular during the city's Cheung Yeung and Ching Ming
Festival, where many Hong Kong residents pay homage to their deceased
ancestors by spending their day at cemeteries.
"The design also focuses
on plenty of greenery with bamboo gardens; something you don't see in
the stony graveyards in Hong Kong despite them being chiseled into hills
because there's simply no space," said Lee.
The structure is also
eco-conscious -- its columbarium wall, which would sit on a rail track,
would be powered by tidal energy. This allows the walls to travel around
the track giving all niches an equal chance for the best position on
the cruise; an important aspect of feng shui - the art of placement
prominent in Chinese culture - where the position of the lot affects the
price for it.
The concept is bizarre
yet it gives Hong Kong a glimpse into its near future. With its bay of
glitzy skyscrapers and a population of over 7.1 million, space to build
is increasingly scarce and developers are being pushed out of packed
central locations. Recently, a CBRE Global Research and Consulting
survey named Hong Kong the world's most expensive retail space at
US$3,863 per sf annum, topping New York.
Hong Kong also has an aging population.
According to the Hong Kong Consensus and Statistics Department in late July, the number of deaths is expected to rise from about 42,700 per year currently to about 82,400 at the end of the next 20 years.
A shortage of space coupled with a rise in death rates has caused a shortage of plot space for the deceased and a subsequent rise in costs for it.
"A floating cemetery is the next natural step in Hong Kong's history of graveyards," said Lee.
Cemetery sites have been
evolving since the 1940s where the dead were buried in graves on flat
land to the 1960s where feng shui dictated that some graves should be
positioned on high hillsides near villages. Towards the 1980s,
columbarium became the preferred place for the dead. Traditionally
housed in temples, they offer locker-style compartments for people to
place the ashes of their loved ones. Columbarium also took the form of
buildings however, in recent years, people have objected to living in
such close proximity to them and their rising prices (private columbaria
costs in Hong Kong range between US$645 to US$25,604). As a result, illegal columbaria have mushroomed in various areas around Hong Kong.
A maritime mortuary is
yet to set sail along a coastline in any part of the world. However,
there have been other unusual options for storing the dead. In Sweden,
it is legal to freeze bodies in a posthumous bath of liquid nitrogen
before blasting them and reducing them to powder.
In Tokyo, Japan,
mechanical tombs are used where families swipe smart cards to lift the
urns from an underground vault and access the ashes of their loved ones;
a solution Hong Kong was reportedly looking into three years ago.
"We're aware that the
wall of columbarium on the floating cemetery will also, at some point,
reach its limit so we suggest stacking up additional storeys on top of
the wall," said Lee. "But most importantly, it's a short-term
alternative. Who knows, we could be seeing a sea of floating cemeteries
in a few years from now."
COPY http://edition.cnn.com
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