1. Social Design X Death Education…

‘Design. Living & Dying’ is the major Design Possible Study in 2013 organised by HKDI DESIS Lab. It started as a collaboration with William Outcast (陳偉霖), an activist of death education who was born with skin cancer and organised the first living funeral in Hong Kong. HKDI DESIS Lab aims to explore new design implications for everyday lives by enabling everyone to be active in the design process. This is why the two units were brought together to start the study of ‘Design. Living & Dying’. The study touched on the most taboo subject in our lives: dying and related issues such as funerals and burial (生死殯葬). As Dr Yanki Lee, Director of HKDI DESIS Lab and William Outcast expressed in an interview for the SIGNED MAGAZINE, “The more people talk about it, the less of a taboo it becomes. Death can be a normal subject for conversation and talking about it can bring people closer. The ideal would be like in countries such as Japan, where funeral businesses are located in the high street next to the shops selling daily necessities. That is a healthier ambience we should strive for which shows death is as normal as any other activities of life.”