how do you transform an industrial wasteland- an ex-stone quarry in igualada, spain into a functioning cemetery? when faced with this unique task architects enric miralles and carme pinós designed a ritualistic space like no other.
i myself was drawn to the design because of its modern take on a ritualistic architectural space and innovative use of what i interpret as vernacular materials. while researching various ways of ‘building with the land’ i stumbled across an image of the paving used on the sites floor. the seemingly random (but meticulously thought out) placement of timber boards caught my eye. little did i know i was looking at a cemetery!
ruskin once said that “all architecture proposes an effect on the human mind, not merely a service to the human frame”. the desolate beauty of the cemetery and the wide range of genuine emotions it evokes, effecting the human mind as ruskin writes, has this project regarded as one of the most poetic architectural works of the twentieth century... rightly so i say. as written by spiro kostof in his book the history of architecture “a building is shaped by ritual... it does not simply house function, it comments on it”. to me pinós and miralles have commented on the timelessness of the life cycle, they explore death as an immortal force- one that has been the basis of ritualistic events since the stone age.
the burial chambers have adapted themselves perfectly in the surrounding landscape becoming articulations of the hillside. once inside the tomb you’re led through the twists and turns of these almost cavernous chambers. purely by visual association i read these as taking inspiration from the natural architecture of caves such as the prehistoric lascaux cave in france. looking axially at the front elevation of the structure only a few walls are visible - leaving you surrounded with what seems like the excavated ruins of an urban town which has been re-inhabited by an architect turned archeologist!
above: a 4d tour of the cemetery!
photos:
1. (top) front facade of cemetery
2.sculpture bordering the cemetery
3.an example of the 'excavated' tomb entrance
4.the 'awkward ordered clutter' which caught my eye
I think Architecture permiates every aspect of our life and we cannot escape from it not even in death. I think it is all about the molecular harmony and order that the universe is build on, and how it can be expressed in our suroundings making our living more in sync with it. It is just a matter of expressing it creativelly in a practical form. And we all going to benefit from it...
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