There is something wrong with death: We do not want to die, we do not want to lose loved ones and people who we feel indebted to. No one of us will however be able to escape this final passage from life to death. But there is more to worry about: How do we handle death in the early 21st century?

Changing burial and memorial preferences
We currently see massive changes in funeral customs across many cultures and countries. While in 1985 only 14% of US adults wished their worldly remains to be cremated, this figure has risen to 32% in 2005. Every second German in a recent survey indicated, she wants a non-traditional burial. Almost everywhere in the world, ash scattering is increasingly preferred over conventional burial, more than half of the Britons e.g. want their ashes to be scattered. The reasons for these developments are manifold:

Conventional cemeteries reach various limitations
Most cemeteries would be sad places, even without the administration of death being their sole purpose. Endless rows of largely indiscernable tombstones, that provide no more than just another name and a few numbers, are an uneven match for the vivid lifes of those they were set up to remember.

Cemeteries are becoming pricier in any case. Basic burial costs for a single grave in the Western hemisphere will set a family back several thousands of Euros or Dollars. Nevertheless, in quite a few countries, graves are not sold but only let for twenty years or little more. Has this rental period elapsed, families and friends are left without a defined place for their memories. Why then, many ask, not straightaway scatter the ashes?

Several municipalities across the world face an increasing lack of cemetery space. Many inner city cemeteries in the UK, Australia or China have been closed down recently, as they were in 19th century Europe already. Families have to travel to remote outskirts when they want to visit a grave.

Funeral and memorial traditions unfit for the 21st century
Friends, fans or colleagues currently have virtually no opportunity to honor people and pay tribute to them beyond placing flowers or wreaths on an existing grave. While this practice seemed appropriate in a local world, relying mainly on small, self-contained family structures, in the flat world of our globalized 21st century it appears outdated.

We have developed radical, pragmatic and realistic approaches that could help solving many of these problems. A grave could be grand, humble and economical, all at the same time. It could be highly individual and tell a fascinating life story. Cemeteries could be located in a city´s center again. Graves could last for centuries, instead of just a few decades. And families or circle of friends living across far away places could be provided with opportunities to come together without even leaving their homes.

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Photo: Pokfulam Road Cemetery on Hong Kong Island, photographed by Jens Thiel in January 2007.