Alicia Lim

About

Alicia’s path into interior design has been shaped by a diverse background across graphic design, marketing and textile design, having obtained her diploma from the University of the Arts London.

This unorthodox journey has broadened her perspective and enriched her approach to creative problem-solving. Driven by curiosity, an open mindset, and a positive attitude, Alicia approaches new challenges with both enthusiasm and adaptability.

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Requiem of the Departed

Isometric drawing assisted by a series of detailed exploded axonometric diagrams and micro-plans.

A fragmented yet continuous architecture unfolds as a sequence of encounters with mortality, where controlled infrastructural forms collide with distorted, unstable volumes. This reveals the tension between a city that systematises death and the deeply human, uncontainable nature of loss.

Informed by Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, the project draws on repetition, pause and contrast to balance light and dark, mass and fragility. Through shifts in datum, descent and compression, the architecture guides both the bereaved and the deceased through a spatial parallel to death, where gravity, resistance and release are experienced.

Through shifts in weight, material and spatial compression, the project suspends the body in an in-between condition, where the rituals of tending to the dead become a means of confronting what the city conceals: that beneath its perfected order, we are all only ever temporary.

Entrance: The body is deposited at the base of the entrance staircase and is gradually carried into the space. To enter, the bereaved must choose to ascend— a deliberate act of letting go. The living resist gravity through effort, while the deceased move without resistance along a gentler path.

Body Preparation: A protected chamber for the preparation of the body before resomation. Like a ribcage shielding the heart, a framework of steel bars encloses the space, filtering light into its core. It becomes the most guarded and intimate centre of the architecture.

Embrace: The architecture articulates a mental preparation for the user prior to entering the central space to reunite with the deceased. The bereaved must circulate along an embracing pathway that surrounds the core of the architecture, holding an empty urn. This space facilitates reflection through views of the water, steadying the mind for what follows.