KAAN Architecten was commissioned by the Netherlands War Graves Foundation (Oorlogsgravenstichting) to design a multifunctional building commemorating the Dutch victims during the Second World War and more recent international conflicts, in Loenen near Apeldoorn. Harmoniously blending with the surrounding forest, the building is a layered and connecting element between the existing Loenen National War Cemetery and the new National Veterans Cemetery.
The geometry takes up the planimetric shape of the existing cemetery, reinterpreting the architectural elements that characterize the area in a contemporary key. The perimeter wall is the generating system of the composition. The intent is to create a clear contrast that allows to highlight the emblematic historical cemetery and to create a synergy with it, so as to enhance the ancient \”Kirchhof\”. From the old cemetery the visitor enters the courtyard and an arcaded area where cinerary urns and the ossuary are located. To emphasize the sacredness of this space, a large skylight was inserted which acts as a pivot between the space of the columbaria and the retaining wall to the north. The zenithal light that comes from the large truncated pyramid on the surfaces of concrete walls create a changing and ephemeral geography of shadows. The boundary wall is extruded, and the various functions are organized in its thickness. The projections above the retaining wall create a portico that, in full local tradition, embraces the courtyard for interment, offering to visitors a sheltered place. The contrast between the concrete and the bronze of the panels and lamps represents the only stylistic note in an austere and deliberately abstract context.
he cemetery renovation and extension project resolves the problem of lack of intimacy during the procession: the funeral cortege used to pass through the provincial road, losing their moment of recollection due to the presence of the local traffic.
The new entrance is located on the southern side, in Via Cimitero (cemetery road), at the end of a tree-lined and calm boulevard. This arrangement makes the space fit the emotional status of the processions gathered for the final farewell.
Simplicity and ceremony. A white wall acts as a backdrop, with a canopy to protect the priest conducting the religious service.
The same space is also designed to be used for private prayers and meditation, as can be inferred by the presence of four benches shaded by four trees.
Tags: Italy, Megliadino San Vitale Comments Off on The Farewells Court – Cemetery Renovation And Extension in Megliadino San Vitale, Italy by MIRCO SIMONATO ARCHITECT
The cemetery building no longer satisfied the requirements for interfaith use. The perimeter of the new hall for public viewings and funeral services was limited by existing areas for graves and urns, and demanded a sacral interpretation together with a suitable atmosphere.
The municipality of Dalmine, a city of 25.000 inhabitans in the north of Italy, had the necessity to increase the main cemetery with a new pavilion to host 500 niches for ossaries and cinenary urns.
The new pavilion is different respect the traditional tipology, that is usually made up of a colonnade open on the big central space of the cemetery, in fact the new building is composed by three repeated blocks on the west side of the cemetery.
A cemetery is a place of collective memory. Walking in these places re-dimensions the scope of our efforts in relation to the passing of time.
It is difficult to find a \”pattern\” in the expansions of the last decades. This probably reflects the uncertainty and cultural disconnection experienced during the era of mass industrialization.
Death is unknown and it is final. The rituals of death and the spaces they are conducted in, have a deep significance to the living as well as the dead. For it is through these rituals and these spaces that the rare intersection of life and death takes place, where the living are forced to encounter and contemplate the mortality and fragility of life while simultaneously putting them in touch with the sublime of the absolute. These spaces and rituals are thus, simultaneously for the living and dead, public yet intimately private and personal.
The local goverment of Lozoya put us in charge of the intervention in the closing and enlargement of the Municipal Cemetery. We had to work on the separating element between, according to Platon, the visible world and the intelligible world, that is, the earthly world from the eternal one. The half-ruined clay wall which needed to be repaired separated both physically and visually the two different worlds, as if both of them could be understood through the wall.
The project located at Robregordo´s cemetery, in Madrid´s mountain range, satisfies the need of a new adition.
The access to the cemetery, since its last intervention, does not have any cover place to wait for the arrival of neither coffin or ashes. The preexisting access consists in three main elements: the gate of entrance, the perimetral wall made of irregular granite blocks as a limit between outside and inside, and two cypresses symmetrically placed at the entrance to the cemetery.
Úrkút is a small village in Hungary, situated in Bakony Hills, one of the most beautiful places in the country. The cemetery of Úrkút takes place on a hill-side facing southeast and the new feretory is at the highest point of this cemetery. There are two beautiful and high pine trees near to the fence of the cemetery and they make one architectural composition together with the building.
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