BASIC PRINCIPLE
Catafalque: Something of a dock, from where the dead people's body 'sails away”, a metaphor. All the relatives gather around it to say goodbye.
CONCEPT
We believe that architectural aims are nothing but messages of a modern era.
A metaphor about the relation of today's people to his or her earthly life.
We aim to represent urban morphology in terms of used material and others. The rising buttress symbolises birth, the central statue symbolises the lived life and behind it, there is the gate of Heaven. The inner part of the building is the 'dock', from where the last journey starts. The transparent 'spirit bird' motif of the blue glass triptych symbolises the 'otherside'.
THE CATAFALQUE
A transitional place. Up front it's the earthly life, and back, at the transparent back wall is the 'otherside'. The light that shines in from above, the rays of it that hit the catafalque – they symbolise the Creator, who is present here.
WEIGHT MAKING
The buttress rises from the ground towards the main weight of the building – which contains the funeral home – and continues in a solid wall under the roof, which turns away and begins to slope towards the forest and returns below the surface. From Alpha, to Omega.
FUNCTION
A water block for the visitors.
Places for rituals and cemetary-related services.
The ritual takes place at the catafalque, where the close relatives are. By pulling away the sliding partition, the outer and inner part becomes one, and that's how everybody becomes involved in the ceremony.