Visionary: (From left) Loo, Beh and Chong posing with their trophy for their winning creation.
In times of emergencies and natural disasters, the treatment of deceased bodies has often been a distressing and undignified affair.
Witnessing corpses hastily placed in body bags, sometimes disrespectfully stacked together, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, prompted three forward-thinking undergraduates at Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) to embark on a mission to redefine the process with compassion, dignity and sustainability in mind.
Together with Bachelor of Product Design students Bennie Beh Hue May and Elson Loo Xin Yang from the varsity’s Lestarial Research Team at the School of Media, Arts and Design (SoMAD), Bachelor of Mechatronic Engineering student Wayne Chong Chee Kin conceptualised and designed SERENIX, a reimagined regenerative casket crafted from Loriam, a sustainable cardboard composite.
The eco-friendly material, boasting exceptional strength – with its strength-to-weight ratio surpassing wood – became the backbone of SERENIX, ensuring robust structural support without unnecessary weight.
SERENIX, a regenerative solution, emphasises compassion towards the deceased.
It features a temporary stretcher capable of carrying a maximum weight of 100kg and allows for easy handling and transportation to an enclosed storage space with a built-in natural preservation feature.
Rooted in environmental consciousness, the design aims to eradicate non-sustainable material use and deforestation.
SERENIX: A compassionate and sustainable casket for times of emergency.
SERENIX received international acclaim recently when the team behind the innovation secured the Silver Prize in the industrial design category at the Taipei Design Award 2023.
While a French design company was awarded the Gold Prize, the recognition for SERENIX underscored its contribution to regenerative design principles, setting a new standard in handling deceased individuals with compassion, dignity, and environmental responsibility.
Held on Nov 10 last year, the event saw Team APU triumph over stiff competition, edging out over 29 finalists from eight countries.
The country’s sole representative in the industrial design category, Team APU won a cash prize of NTD200,000 (RM29,894) for the effort.
The journey to success for the team, mentored by SoMAD lecturers Eekang Ooi and Liew Yong Kian, involved six months of intensive Loriam material testing, research and development.
Team roles were clearly defined, with Beh focusing on ideation, computer-aided design (CAD), poster design, and prototyping; Chong contributing his innovative engineering ideas; and Loo taking charge of design rendering and animation video editing.
“The preparation phase for the SERENIX CAD modelling, rendering, poster designing, and video editing took nearly two weeks.
“We submitted just before the deadline. The creation of the physical mockup, to be sent to Taiwan, required almost three weeks of preparation, prototyping, and finishing,” said Beh, who was the team lead.
“The strength of our product design curriculum is that we not only educate young talents in using materials that help save the earth, but we also produce designs that are of international standards,” said Ooi, adding that the team’s achievement was aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Key features of SERENIX include a flat-pack design for optimised transportation efficiency; an enclosed storage with built-in natural preservation; a pull-up origami design inspired by ancient jade burial suits from the Han Dynasty; sealing protection and tagging information for streamlined body identification; stackable storage method in line with regenerative closed-loop systems; natural preservation crafted from Loriam with evaporative cooling properties; user-friendly design with a small door for easy opening; and eco-friendly funeral options of cremation and natural burial.
