Submit a Project Advertise Architonic
World
© All rights reserved. ArchDaily, part of DAAily platforms AG 2008-2024 ISSN 0719-8884 All images are © each office/photographer mentioned.
  1. ArchDaily
  2. Cemeteries

Cemeteries: The Latest Architecture and News

The Origins of Cemeteries as Public Parks

In the 19th century, many Americans living in up-and-coming cities and towns oftentimes found themselves strolling through the winding paths of curated gardens, stopping to rest under the shade of a tree and share a picnic with family and friends. Dotted across the grassy areas were headstones, marking the burial locations of those who were laid to rest. While the concept of relaxing in a graveyard seems a bit taboo in the present day, it was sometimes the only option for people to find space for recreation and leisure and was one of the earliest examples of a public park. Many of the parks we have today were actually caused by the evolution and planning of historic cemeteries.

No More Room for the Living or the Dead: Exploring the Future for Burials in Asia

In some of the most dense cities around the world, it’s becoming an increasing challenge to find a comfortable space to live- and similar for when you die, too. It’s estimated that 55 million people pass away each year, and for every one living person today, there are 15 times the number of deceased. Yet urban planners and architectural developers are more interested in dealing with the living than dabbling in the business of death. As a result, it’s created tension in the two parallel worlds- and as time goes on, more questions are being raised about how we address public space that can be designed so that both the living and the dead can coexist.

In Praise of Cemeteries

When you live in a small New England town, a cemetery is never far away. If I take an hour’s walk through local streets, I will easily pass by or through two or three. They’ve long been places of solace, peace, tranquility—even ironic hubris.

Ondřej Císler and Petr Tej Design Concrete Bridge Over a Stream in the Czech Republic

Ondřej Císler from Aoc architects and Petr Tej from the Klokner Institute at CTU in Prague have designed a bridge over the Dřetovice stream in Vrapice, near the city of Kladno in the Czech Republic.

Ondřej Císler and Petr Tej Design Concrete Bridge Over a Stream in the Czech Republic - Image 1 of 4Ondřej Císler and Petr Tej Design Concrete Bridge Over a Stream in the Czech Republic - Image 2 of 4Ondřej Císler and Petr Tej Design Concrete Bridge Over a Stream in the Czech Republic - Image 3 of 4Ondřej Císler and Petr Tej Design Concrete Bridge Over a Stream in the Czech Republic - Image 4 of 4Ondřej Císler and Petr Tej Design Concrete Bridge Over a Stream in the Czech Republic - More Images+ 28

Designing Dead Space: How Architecture Plays a Role in the Afterlife

Designing Dead Space: How Architecture Plays a Role in the Afterlife - Image 6 of 4
Courtesy of VERO Visual. ImageHofmanDujardin

While cemeteries have long served as a place in which we can honor and remember our loved ones, they are also often places that showcase architecture, and landscape design. In the late 19th century, cemeteries evolved from overcrowded and unsanitary urban spaces into rural, park-like social centers. In cities that lacked public parks, cemeteries became popular destinations for picnics, holidays, and other family gatherings.

Topio7’s Revitalisation of Former Cemetery Merges Urban Park and City in Athens

A competition for the transformation of a former cemetery in Nikea, just west of central Athens, has been won by Greek firm Topio7, with a proposal that creates a revitalized public park as a result of “a mutual osmosis between the park and the city”. A number of green buffer zones – “the elastic limit” – are utilized to frame a procession-like journey from the bustle of the city to the calm of the park’s landscape.

Highlighting the importance of the site’s previous use, the architects explain that the “main objective of the project is the creation of an open, accessible public space, a contemporary urban park with ecological-bioclimatic character, with special emphasis on the social dimension and the site’s memory.”

Topio7’s Revitalisation of Former Cemetery Merges Urban Park and City in Athens - GardenTopio7’s Revitalisation of Former Cemetery Merges Urban Park and City in Athens - GardenTopio7’s Revitalisation of Former Cemetery Merges Urban Park and City in Athens - Garden, ForestTopio7’s Revitalisation of Former Cemetery Merges Urban Park and City in Athens - Garden, ForestTopio7’s Revitalisation of Former Cemetery Merges Urban Park and City in Athens - More Images+ 9

The Interface of the Afterlife: Examining Cemeteries and Mausoleums in the 21st Century

The relationship between immortality and architecture is ancient one. Writing in The New Yorker, Alexandra Lange discusses the past and future of cemetery design in relation to a new exhibition on display in New York. Featuring a selection of 1300 individual mausoleum designs stored in Columbia University's archives, Lange notes how "patrons weren’t picky about originality. In the late nineteenth century, memorial companies might just bring back a shipment of angels from Carrara to be distributed among future clients." These "rural estates in miniature" eventually gave way to more contemporary designs which dabbled in Realism and Cubism. What will the people of today house their remains in? For Lange, "the design we take personal pleasure from everyday is now less likely to be architecture and more likely to be an interface." Read the article in full here.