Lozoya’s Cemetery
Due to the condition of the semi-ruined perimeter wall of Lozoya’s Cemetery, the Council commissioned a design project to adapt and enlarge the access at the front besides a new columbarium that will increase its capacity. The budget for the whole intervention is very tight, only about thirty thousand euros. The existing wall is massive, made of lime and stone. It has large deformations and cracks that may have risk to collapse. Therefore, it is necessary to demolish the wall and at the same time, increase the enclosure limits to the end of the municipality´s plot. Furthermore, this massive wall does not allow direct views to Pinilla Reservoir from the road. This position encourages an isolated cemetery from its nearest natural context. While access to the cemetery is produced by only one of the directions of the road, the one that comes from the town, the current entrance is designed frontally without letting vehicles to make the necessary turn to work inside.
The new access aims to improve three aspects of the current situation. First, the new limits is made of local granite pilasters, shear cut, aligned and spaced eight centimeters in between. The top part of these pilasters remains the same in order to create a virtual horizontal plane. The base, however, fits the contours of the land –which goes lightly down-. This solution keeps the cemetery closed according to schedules but, at the same time, it allows a set of visual transparencies connecting the reservoir with the road. Second, the design offers a geometry that allows the movement and turns vehicles inside. The geometry of the new walls allows to incorporate a pergola and a bench outside to the design while behind it, inside, the columbarium is located. A small garden and a bench where users can temporarily sit are organized in the irregular geometry of the interior. The outdoor pergola allows, in stormy weather, to users take a shelter. Third, the bench, the pergola and the columbarium form a structure balance on strict constructive principles of the piece. The metal plates that build the sit serve to rest the weight of the columbarium. A hinge between the pilasters works as a pulley: while the weight of the columbarium at one end pushed down, the foundation of the sit on the other side keeps stable the system. Due to excessive tight budget, there is not any decorative element in any design element included in the project.
© muka arquitectura
