IN BETWEEN LIFE & DEATH by Le Quang from switzerland

In between life and death .

1 . Intro : Harmony

My journey to discover the death

To talk about death . When I was a kid , I always thought of dying . We will have to die, one day . We no longer feel a feeling , I was afraid that one day I could not think or can not love. And above all, I fear that one day , I were forgotten.
I started to think about death in 4 years . When I asked my mother about this , she smiles and says : » death is not the end ' . This makes a child like me felt very comfortable . My mother is a Buddhist woman and her soul that has been washed in the flow religion . I believe that she did not fear death .

When I learned to reading, I started to make more sense of the death , with the hope of a miracle happening behind the death . I've even read about some people who commit suicide just to satisfy their curiosity . I talked with my father - a physicist , he said : "why have you wondered about death so much , while you never thought about the time that the unborn ? » . It was really a difficult question . That year I was seven years old .

My dad took me to the nature walks and hiking since I was a kid . At first I thought he was doing so because he want to remove all of thinking about death from me. He guides my life observing , describing and feel it with my own soul . To the ever-changing life as well as the growth of the soul . When I asked him whether I should continue to think about death . He answered me that I can keep thinking about it until I have my own answers .

He also asked me : "why have you appeared in this world ? did not the other one ? «

If you could be born in the world, it's a miracle and it is better than anything else.

Slightly larger . I stopped to ask others about death anymore . I want to find my own answers . I have an uncle , who died in Quang Tri battlefield during the Vietnam War . Most fierce battle in the 20th century . In death , he was 20 years old , a beautiful young man , he was a poet , a student . My dad has always reminded of my uncle with childhood memories . The little story about him . So his image so vivid in my mind . Even sometimes I feel that he has never died .

When I was 18 , my brother , who died of cancer when he was 24 years old . It was the first time I have a sense of death honestly . And also when I realized that manpower is limited . I have witnessed the gradual death with him for 6 months and his struggle with death . And that has always stood between life and death have made me think more clearly about death . He died in a fall day in 2006 , I remember before he died , he had told everyone that we tried our best .

His room remains the same during the past 7 years . Not because we want to illusory self, that is because we want to face it , and the fact that we had to it as a gentle sadness crept in his mind .

When I grow up , I leave my homeland and go travel so many place in the world and start a different way . A way to explore my own life . I 've always carried his picture with me , always build dialogue between me and him . At age 25 , I suddenly realized that I was even older than him.

When we visit his grave , we usually walk , watching the rice fields , so that his soul mixed in nature. And then , I clearly felt his existence , an existence behind death . For me , the grave is not really important . It can exist or not exist .

Finally I almost found the answer for myself .

The only people really die when they are forgotten.

When immersed in nature and feel it , we become one with life . And I can feel death when in the middle of the boundary between life and death . All you need to do with lost loved ones , which is to keep them in your heart and you will realize that people do not really die.

2. Proposal

Back to the "Design for death" .
Caring for the dead is an Important part of any society , and how it is done reflects the prevailing culture ?

For me ,the best way to take care for dead is keeping their image in your heart , do not let them be forgotten . It is more important than the physical way you caring for them . . .
Listen the real life and you can feel the death.

So I propose a space where man can feel
" Life " , "death " and " the thing between life and death."
This space provides a comprehensive experience Bereavement due to lighting effects .
The long corridor with soft light, the room quiet and recollection space bright light to help them with natural binding .

The area selected is Grande Dixence Dam
The Grande Dixence Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Dixence River at the head of the Val d' Herens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland . At 285 m ( 935 ft ) high , it is the tallest gravity dam in the world and is part of the Cleuson - Dixence Complex . With the primary purpose of hydroelectric power generation , the dam fuels four power stations , totaling the installed capacity to 2,069 MW , generating approximately 2,000 GWh annually , enough to power 400,000 Swiss Households .
The dam withholds Lac des Dix ( Lake Dix ) , its reservoir . With a surface area of 4 km ² , it is the second largest lake and the largest lake in Valais above 2,000 m in the Alps . The reservoir receives its water from four Different pumping stations , the Z'Mutt , Stafel , Ferpecle and Arolla . At peak capacity , it contains approximately 400 million m3 ( 1.4 × 1010 cu ft ) of water , with Depths Reaching up to 284 m ( 932 ft ) . Began construction on the dam in 1950 and was completed in 1964 , before Officially commissioning in 1965.

A new structure was built attached to the dam as a fraction . Here I focus on three discrete space : open space , bereavement space and space experience linked to nature .
Chain this space to provide all the services and products related factors to death , funerals , cremation , burials and memorials .

At more than 2400 meters high , actually everything became the journey , and at the end of it , you really feel the life behind the death . 1 works like a bridge , take you to the emotions .

3. Conclusion

All what I want is to bring to the bereavements :
Keep them in the their hearts and immersed in nature.
That's how you keep them alive forever .

Thank you for your listening

The life of man is to go down to death

Death is really not scary

The key is in between life and death

Is what you have done.