Cultures around the world are currently dealing with a problem unique to the 21st century: the excessive use of land to bury the dead in the past has left little more for future generations. While cremation and the spreading of ashes has long acted as a measure against leaving a permanent mark on a site, there is still a significant majority that wish for a coordinate to call their own. 

In response to its own land-use crisis, the city of Taipei has developed the True Dragon Tower, a 20-story building housing over the ashes of over 400,000 people. The building type is known as a columbarium, which traditionally organized with niches for funeral urns to be stored for visitors to attend as one might visit a cemetery. Given that over 90% of Taiwan's citizens prefer cremation over burial, it is little surprise that Taiwan became the home of the world's tallest columbarium. 

True Dragon Tower has been described as a "hotel for the dead" by a spokeswoman for the company that runs the columbarium, and the prices suggest that this would be a luxury hotel: according to Quartz, "a basic individual niche measures about 22 by 25 centimeters (9 by 10 inches) and starts at about NT$200,000 ($6,500). More elaborate niches can cost more than NT$1 million at the top end (excluding the costs of other funereal procedures such as memorial services and burning offerings)." Completed in 2012, the tower is impeccably detailed and ornamented, a rooftop temple and even a marble-clad floor designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando. 

Despite the cost of a stay, nearly 1/10th of the building is already occupied.