The necropolis, built in Gwangju by the IROJE bureau headed by its founder Seung Hyo Sang, is called a "memorial park" for a reason. The authors interpret their complex as a park: the roofs of the buildings are planted with grass, and therefore from a distance it looks like a green zone, not a cemetery.
However, the metaphor of the city is more important for Seung Hyo Sang: he divided the area allocated to him on the hillside into terraces, as he would have done in the case of a real village. Groups of graves and walls of the columbarium form "quarters" connected to each other by paths or stairs, and open spaces and sanctuaries are located at key points. The main square is located at the bottom, at the entrance: the Garden of Light and the Yard of Water are built there, corten steel is widely used. Xi'an has several areas for reflection, and a Tower of Memory is erected at the top.
However, the architect rejects the idea of a "city of the dead". In his opinion, the cemetery is not a place for the dead, but for our memory of them, where it is also worth looking into ourselves. At the cemetery, a person becomes convinced of the authenticity of his own existence and remembers the beauty in life, Seung Hyo Sang believes.
