A tree, a life, a place
Mori Li

A dialogue

Resilience is not just about city, it is about the people. Resilient people are able to deal with uncertainties, complexities and changes. As we free ourselves from the fascination of the material world, there is another mood that is always being forgotten in our city – the acknowledgement of death as part of the living. We are never aware it until it happens, and we easily forget it as time passes by.

The project aims to promote a mentally healthy city by creating a dialogue between the living and the dead in urban open space. Employing a sustainable approach to confront death, the project creates a comfortable grieving process for those who have lost their beloved: ashes are combined with soil and seed, stored in a biodegradable container, planted in a wooden log pavilion in an urban green space. The space gradually transforms as seed grows into sampling tree, from spring to autumn and to winter, continuing the cycle of life and giving people a sense of release, closure and comfort in the grieving process. For the living, the space becomes a contained landscape to consume, learn, and appreciate the meaning of life and change, as well as a place to provoke our understanding of relationships with others.

As time goes by, the tree is fully grown and, finally, along with trees spring up in different parts of the city, they become urban forest, dissolve themselves in the soil with their people