(Re)-Defining the dichotomy/demarcation betweenContemporary LIVING + DYING sphere Part 2 Project 2004 Looi Chee Kin National University of Singapore | Singapore The mechanism of storing ashes (columbaria) & books (community library ), used as an instrument to address present criticism of contemporary living & dying which has been neutralized to an extent purely mechanical, a storage system-like. Instead of conceiving solutions, the thesis seeks to take advantage of this condition and use the mechanism to differentiate these 2 contrast event by JUXTAPOSING the ritual/act of browsing books(living) and worshiping the dead(dying) are inherently different in nature(architecturally in event & space/materiality) and yet moving along with the prevailing condition in Singapore that efficiency/capacity has inevitably neutralized disparate events be it living or dying. Although Looi Chee Kin’s “Columbarium in Housing District” is apparently considered as a subject under taboo, it also can be a quite realistic scenario in Singapore if we take its current interment policy into account. The merit of the work is in a sensible yet bold arrangement of a civic library and the columbarium. The library parallel with the linear columbarium mediates a conflict between housings and columbarium, yet through its book stacks, the library introduces the uncanny and imposing scene of columbarium behind it. This setting expresses a sensuous aspect of the project, namely an exploration of real “other” within the Singapore’s homogenized landscape.