In the development of Singapore as a ‘nation’, it is salient to understand the multicultural and multiracial conditions, where physical and social landscape of sentiment can potentially have a real place in the progressive agenda of nation-building. Investigating the cultural and materiality of the nation on collective and individual level, it also negotiates the change in landscapes and rituals through the lens of national identity and concept of power within social, cultural, religious, economical, and political forms.

Addressing the effects of global warming in particularly rise in sea level, sea surface temperature and ocean acidification, Singapore being an island-state, is especially vulnerable. Coastal protection is crucial in safeguarding her people, her land, and resources, through artificial and natural methods. With the rise in the trend of ash-scattering at sea following one’s death, and the conflict revolving around sharing the sea with the deceased and recreational activities, the thesis engages the coast by integrating the opposing notion of death and coastal protection through reef conservation.

The thesis aims negotiate the boundary between nature and culture by presenting an alternative vision of shared beliefs and narrative of continuity between the living and the deceased through architecture, providing spaces to remember and celebrate the lives, and protecting our coastline against environmental and political threats.

Keyword: Nature, Culture, Death, Marine Biodiversity, Coastal Protection, Ecology, Continuity