Outstanding Architecture and Design Thesis Award

The project is named the AI, meant to be read as the eye, AI is a pronunciation word play on the word love and mourn in mandarin, which is both read as AI.

This project, sited at Yishun columbarium a government owned columbarium site in Singapore, aims to create a columbarium space that moves from traditional to modern. Allowing the bereaved to conclude the journey of life of their loved ones, contemplate, and gradually ease them from grief.

The design intent of this project is to instil a sense of ceremony to conclude their loved one’s journey in life and allow them to grieve and contemplate when they visit. Allowing columbarium to have a poetic and meaningful existence, as a space that contains memories of these people that come to visit their loved ones.

Allowing columbarium to have a poetic and meaningful existence, through manipulation of its space, light and shadow, instead of just serving its sole purpose as a practical ash depository location. Creating a sense of ceremony to conclude their loved one’s journey in life, through circular architecture forms connecting the blocks together, through ramps or bridges.

As such the AI hopes in redefining the act of these funeral activities, how the urn niches look like and their purpose in supporting the way the living can remember the deceased, how these people continue to live on in our memories.