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Architects: Ecoproyecta
- Area: 25 m²
- Year: 2013
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Photographs:David Frutos
Text description provided by the architects. A family vault must save and preserve memory, but it should also be an intimate gathering place to go and remind the family members. The project of this vault arises from this starting point of view, from the design of a courtyard that is protected from the outside but open to the sky to maintain relationship with vegetation of the site, natural light and fresh air.
A brick load-bearing wall surrounds the four sides of the plot placing the entrance at the main street. This entrance is made obliquely through the thick wall, creating a threshold between outside and inside, and filtering the direct view from the street. Once inside, the front wall is keeping the niches for coffins (ten in total). The cover turns its gable inwards, leaving a mid-gap through which natural light, rain and outside air enter.
Materials: Zero kilometer architecture
The materials had to be durable, common and easy to obtain and work. Also they should provide an image of serenity, a difficult balance between the discrete and the solemn, between the simple and the rich in nuances. The special contribution of Ecoproyecta has been the selection of materials that were obtained near the site, following the criteria of kilometer zero architecture.
The brick walls and the pavement are made by hand in Valentin, a town in the northwest of Region of Murcia (Spain), a place with a long tradition in ceramics that has finally giving name to this type of sun-drying handmade brick. This causes irregularities in shape and in color of the pieces, which results in a highly textured skin. This skin has been topped with white mortar, using a very thin load, which shines through the brick thanks to its irregularities. The result is an old wall, something that seems to have gone by, and showing the hidden eroding brick.
The other material used in the vault is Macael marble, from an Andalusian village near Murcia. It is known for its whiteness, interrupted by dark betas. It is used for the gravestones and niches and also for covering part of the interior walls and the lower deck gables.
