Following my cemetery photography exhibition in London this June, I continued the series in Suichang, Zhejiang, documenting a contemporary funeral complex set within forested hills—arguably one of the first architect-led cemetery projects in mainland China since 1949.

Cemeteries in China are rarely treated as architectural subjects. They are seen as infrastructure—functional, economical, and often neglected. That is precisely why this project felt significant. It suggests that even spaces associated with death can be reconsidered as meaningful environments.

Designed by Untitled Architects, the complex sits quietly in a valley, surrounded by bamboo and constant natural sound. What initially appeared austere in photographs revealed itself, in person, to be unexpectedly warm. A series of modest volumes encircle a central water courtyard, their scale recalling local dwellings. Ground floors host rituals, while upper levels accommodate temporary stays for mourners. Between buildings, trees grow freely, introducing a quiet sense of continuity and life.

Rain transforms the project. Water becomes the organising element: flowing from upper courtyards into the central pool, channelled through sculptural concrete spouts, or striking pebbles below. The space turns into a kind of acoustic landscape, where architecture frames a natural rhythm rather than suppressing it.

Local residents, however, remain uneasy. This is understandable. In China, death has long been avoided in public discourse, as if silence could defer it. Yet death is unavoidable. Perhaps it is more meaningful to see it not as an end, but as a transition—less a place of fear than a point of departure.