Memento Vitae

UNPAR

Project idea

Death is a one of the life cycle that one day every living being will go through. But sometimes, the event or topics about death are still taboo within society in Indonesia. But in reality, culture from Nusantara(Indonesian Ethnics) treat the event as a celebration, either it’s the celebration ceremony for the dead or celebration to rejoice the life itself.

It would be nice if there could be a place where people could gather to remember and to reminisce the event as something as a celebration of life. The very concept i put into the building is "Celebrating Life". Because the act of grief and celebration comes together, the same goes for the cycle of life.

The image that occurs right now in society around this event is grief and sorrow. And somehow it is related to the building itself. So, instead of design a resting place where people only mourn for the dead, I’m trying to design something where people can also celebrate the event of life itself.

Project description

This project located in Kota Baru Parahyangan, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. It is a sub-urban space and still under development. The area located near a riverbed. The surrounding supposed to be a public commercial building. So, the design should also be able to accommodate the needs of privacy while still maintaining the idea as a funeral home without the negative perception.

Technical information

The design trying to assimilate with the concept of cinematic architecture. It means the space itself has an atmosphere to be felt. Every space has a connection and trying to convey something. The main functional room(mourning chamber, crematorium, and columbarium) sends different atmospheres. The atrium has the best lighting with installation as the representation of time(hourglass). The building itself built underground to deliver a message, that it is an event concerning the dead and to send them to the afterlife. The design itself using simple geometry as an analogy going back to the ground(to the basic). To maintain such building, I am using a bearing wall and waffle slab method. I was inspired by The Metropol Parasol in Seville, Spain.