Death Is No Farewell: An Experiment to Make Cemeteries Disappear

Time: June 2016

Location: Shunde, Guangdong, China

We are born into this world and will eventually leave it. Death is an ordinary, everyday truth—one that awaits every living being.

Yet today, death is sanctified and sealed beneath cold stone tombstones on the outskirts of cities. The living shy away from talking about it, yet bear a heavy price for its rituals. Millions of lives end annually amid an aging population; on this land that accounts for a mere 7% of the world’s total area, cemeteries expand at an unsustainable rate. Land resources dwindle; traditional burial ignores ecological balance; and exorbitant grave costs have become shackles weighing down the living.

Life is already hard enough; why make departure equally painful?

Is there a way to stop death from dividing land, sealing memories, and isolating emotions? Can we bring the departed back into daily life and free the living from the agony of separation?

We initiated an experiment: to integrate human and pet ashes into ordinary life, weakening—even replacing—conventional cemeteries. Let the physical remains of the departed rejoin natural cycles, and let the longing of loved ones reside in every gentle touch, honoring the elemental conservation and wholeness that life inherently demands.

When life draws to an end, must all love, attachment, companionship, and solace be buried under a handful of soil, leading to eternal separation—you depart for the afterlife, while I remain, solitary and forlorn, on this earth?

We began with small pet lives, rooted in respect for life and compassionate end-of-life care. BENTU initiated the Life Series Experiment, so that profound grief need no longer be lost in empty cemeteries, allowing life to continue in another form through the passage of time.

A handful of ashes, a scoop of sand, a pour of clear water—solidified into tangible objects. We blend pet ashes with mineral cementitious materials and integrate smart technology to create usable daily items: coffee tables, planters, and wall clocks.

These are not tombstones, not ash boxes, and certainly not cold specimens. They are household objects meant for daily touch, routine use, and constant companionship.

Life Series · Coffee Table

I remember you in the most cherished way. Not a specimen. Not a sealed box. And certainly not a lone tombstone stranded on some suburban hillside. I bring you home, just as we once stayed side by side every day.

It holds daily belongings, within reach at any moment; our intimate bond remains unbroken. Far more meaningful than an elevated shrine, you stay within my everyday world, never distant or gone.

Life Series · Planter

Solidified life bears vibrant vitality. Plants grow day by day; life carries on endlessly.

You were full of energy in my memories, and now you stay vivid in my life through green growth. Every watering becomes a tender thought; just like old times, you remain endlessly lively.

Life Series · Wall Clock

Must a beloved companion be cruelly frozen into a specimen after passing away?

The second hand ticks nonstop, breaking the boundary between life and death. One second ago, this second, the next second; past, present, future. The departed life flows onward with time, participating in every ordinary day that follows.

A Warm Connection: Emotions Linked by Smart Technology

We do not merely solidify ashes into shapes; we further infuse technology to grant vivid warmth to memories.

Shadow projection technology displays dynamic footage of the pet, shifting with the viewer’s angle and the light, as if it has never left.

A dedicated QR code links to an exclusive digital page, where family and friends share memories to ease private sorrow and offer mutual comfort.

Built-in sensors and chips trigger familiar sounds when a palm touches the surface, softening the loneliness of long remembrance.

From moving images to voices, from physical objects to multi-dimensional memories, we create a warm home for pets and preserve lasting companionship for their owners. Death is not an end, but symbiosis in another form.

Those once irreplaceable lives become part of household routines. In peace or sorrow, loneliness or longing, they stay quietly beside us, offering steady comfort and consolation as always.

We believe that the daily integration and intelligent transformation of memorial practices represent an inevitable trend for future funeral culture.

Even though this concept remains unacceptable to most people today, we choose to press ahead.

A creative team should never focus solely on commercial gains. Beyond profit, it must maintain in-depth reflection on the value of life and social reality. BENTU has long devoted itself to experimental, exploratory material research and product creation, observing society with sincere care—even when such concern seems unrealistic and challenges common sense.

For genuine innovation always begins with what the world deems “impractical.”

Design Director: Xu Gang

This is an original article under the BENTU Sustainable Practice Series. Taking funeral and burial material experiments as a research sample, it records how life ashes and inorganic cementitious materials transform from symbols of separation into carriers of enduring symbiosis.