The Srebrnice Cemetery
The Srebrnice cemetery is the first phase of a larger project for a forest cemetery which started as an open competition in 1989. The starting phase covers aprox. 8 hectares of existing forest in which two initial objects are built: an office building and a funeral hall with 4 chapels.
The design concept was rather simple. That is, to follow the topographical conditions of the existing landscape, making adjustments in it for the establishment of the cemetery and add to it buildings which would relate to the special characteristics of the site. A final goal was to achieve a balanced between the project and the landscape with the architectural design of the future forest cemetery. For that reason several detailed measures were taken: modest and pure architectural forms with no additional ornaments or redundant architectural elements, clear and straight access along the main axis leading through the funeral hall to the forest and grassy burial-fields which follow the existing topography.
The programme starts at the point where the service facilities are situated and continues toward the funeral hall. While proceeding along this slightly ascending access road, the visitors attention is focused on narrow, gradually unfolding views until the entrance complex of the funeral hall appears as a climax point in this visual sequence.
A long linear concrete wall with a bench along the whole of its side marks the entrance into the cemetery. It acts as a protective screen against the service yard. Perpendicular to it is the service edifice, which begins with a large window of the flower shop and continues in an arrangement of service premises and offices.
The funeral edifice is located on the optical line of the cemetery. It is composed of two parts: the funeral tract and the funeral edifice. The funeral tract is tripartite: in the line of the valley there is a covered portico. From the portico we enter a fully transparent funeral hall (the main chapel), opening out into the surroundings by means of a large window. The natural scenery forms the background. On the opposite side, the volume of the hall is repeated in a collonade, which offers an intimate shelter.
The tract of the funeral edifice is an independent building whole. The funeral chapels, placed in a line, are divided by sky-lit patios, which provides the only reference to the outside world. They are planted with greenery.
The lattice (timber screen), already announced in the facade of the service edifice acts as a barrier. This barrier between the intimate groves of the chapels and the main alley is a thin, translucent line, whose importance is shown not so much in its volume as in its shadows. The lattice ends with a kind of a contemporary death-bell, a sound mobile or tubular bells.
Nothing new, surprising or exciting is in the buildings; the world of the surrounding nature is reach enough. Architecture seeks a dialogue with its environment, through contrast between the forms of living nature and the strict geometrical order of architecture; between the material and spiritual; between the spontaneous and the rational; between the animate and inanimate. It is a place of tranquillity and peace. In contrast to the world in which we live. This is why the architecture is completely bare, mute, freed of all images and illusions. It is what it is: a haven for the last farewell.
The materials are as simple and sparse as the organisation of spaces: fairfaced concrete bearing the imprint of timber shuttering, untreated oak panelling used externally and internally, stone on floors, glass in Jansen sections.
