Anyway, according to Miralles, architecture should relate to the memory of the land. The Igualada Cemetery located on the outskirts of Barcelona attempts to do that.
By sinking the architecture into the ground, the land from above seems virtually untouched. It appears to preserve it original appearance. In addition, the stones from the excavation are reused in the retaining walls.
At the Igualada Cemetery, Miralles’s design is able “to merge with the ground without being subsumed by it; the work is therefore able to exist in its own right, without simply becoming another layer of the land on which it stands
The entrance of the cemetery is marked by “sculptural steel markers”. The chapel is located near the entrance. After the funeral, the mourners join the hearse at the entrance; they then descend into the cemetery. As they progress into the site they find themselves buried by the cemetery, “open space is confronted with closure, as the living are with the dead” However, the cemetery is not only designed for the dead. The path into the cemetery is like a city street with elements that relate directly to human movement such as lights, concrete benches, ramps and stairs.
The materials in the Igualada Cemetery were chosen to show the passing of time.For example, the lamps sheathed in metal will rust with time and the concrete will weather. Furthermore, life is allowed to subtly pervade the territory of the dead, the plants and trees will grow over the years and bury the cemetery. In this project, the dead are not monumentalized, nor are they ignored. The “city of the dead is transformed into a park where the living can also stay awhile”
Basically the cemetary is akin to a "long man-made path", built into the landscape where people (live) experience different spaces and instants while moving through it. While moving through the different spaces one is able to experience the different layers in the architecture.
Nicholas Yeo
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