Death, when viewed from a distance, appears as a universal order equally bestowed upon all; yet when observed closely, it reveals itself as a collection of individual narratives that can never be reduced to one another. While burial plots gather to form a collective landscape, their subtly shifted orientations and varied scales—shaped by the flow of the terrain—contain distinct stories accumulated over time. This project begins by attending to this dual landscape formed by the universal order of death and the individual narratives preserved within life, seeking a restrained architectural response to their coexistence.

The imperfect square of the roof, bearing a subtle, hand-drawn tremor, evokes the solemnity of the columbarium through a primitive geometry that departs from precise linear order. Skylights pierced around the columbarium niches draw light and the temporal rhythms of nature deep into the interior, granting each individual narrative encountered in death a unique sense of place. Varied in proportion and scale in response to the surrounding burial grounds, the skylights form a grid of light through “difference and repetition.” This modulation of light establishes distinct densities and atmospheres within each space, creating specific places where individual mourning and memory may dwell beneath the universal order of death.

The strict horizontal massing and repetitive columns render the building as an abstract object within the natural landscape when perceived from afar, while at close range, phenomenological variations of light and shadow entering through the skylights reveal the site-specific character of individual deaths. Departing from the typological order and anonymous city of the dead represented by San Cataldo, the project seeks to recover singular narratives through the integration of natural cycles and sensory experience. The elevated mass allows nature to sustain itself beneath, while the architecture exists as a minimal layer of dwelling between earth and sky.


Architects : Narrative Architects
Lead Architects : Sihong Kim, Namin Hwang
Location : Dangjin, Republic of Korea