Nový cintorín cemetery and house of mourning in Žilina, Slovakia

Slovak Technical University in Bratislava

Project idea

The project consists of a new urban design proposal for the continuation of the New Cemetery in Žilina in its existing area and an architectural design of a new house of mourning. Part of the assignment was also the application of natural burial as a future alternative to classical ceremonies. Its advantage is not merely ecological approach but also present solutions to the current crisis of funeral rituals, which is the key problem of the entire work.
The newly designed house of mourning is meant to solve the complicated ownership relations of the city - the owner of the cemetery and the private company that owns and operates the house of mourning with a crematorium in the current entrance part of the cemetery area. The work offers a future vision of involving the upper part of the area, which is currently not used, only passively maintained. It is this part of the land that represents the possibility of creating a new entrance to the area, which would free the city from the will of the private owner; moreover, it is also a suitable location for the location of the city‘s farewell hall. Resolving an existing-private object is not the subject of this assignment.

Project description

The work aims to offer a comprehensive reflection on the causes and possible solutions to the phenomenon of the crisis of funeral rituals. It is based on the concept of an individual approach to the needs of the bereaved (a solution can be offered by the philosophy of natural burial, but ideally also by the reform of traditional funeral services), on the artistic approach to the farewell journey and, last but not least, on consideration of the materiality of new architecture, which has a direct impact on people, nature and their mutual relationship. Earth constructions represent an ingenious cycle in which the individual building phases - construction, use and disposal - work in harmony with the environment and in unlimited continuity. Such a cycle is an optimal metaphor for the essence of human life itself.

The urban design envisages the division of the territory into several program-integrated sectors. This idea is based both on the practical consideration of the task and on the effort in the project to consider the location of an ecological zone suitable for a natural cemetery. The different program focus also aims to offer enough alternatives to fulfill the individual preferences of survivors. It also reacts to the living terrain and burial methods used in the surrounding countries, which better deal with the aesthetic or orderly management of cemeteries.

The phasing of the new cemetery would presuppose, in the first phase, a continuation of classical burials in the currently used area. Due to the slope of the site, they would continue the current location of the urn graves with a terrace with new urn walls.
In the other two sectors in the direction of the rising terrain, places for classic burials with less density are proposed, or taking into account the preservation of green areas through burial in terrace walls.
This is followed by a strip of forest that serves as a visual division of the cemetery grounds - a green filter. This area allows for natural burial, but it also represents a "path", so it has a more free character.
In the upper part of the territory there is a new house of mourning, and in the cover of the top of the hill there is a forest cemetery with a circular place for carrying out natural farewell ceremonies.

The main idea of ​​the building design is the unity of life with nature and the natural a cycle in which nothing ends but transforms and continues on in a different form. The never-ending cycle is shown primarily in the construction axis and in the material approach.
The optimal place for the location of the object is at the top of the hill, as the terrain is less rugged in this place. Place is relative near the road, which is advantageous from a functional point of view, however, an object placed directly on the terrain on a hill can be a disturbing barrier in nature contact with the environment. That's why I decided to partially sink the house and make it accessible from the already designed road that connects the area with the main one by road. The view from the hill therefore remains undisturbed and from the lower part of the area is more in harmony with the environment.
The house is designed mainly from rammed earth constructions. The idea of ​​a never-ending cycle consists in the use of excavated earth directly for the construction of the object, in the perception of connection with nature during the life of the building and in the smooth return of the material to the environment after its disappearance, possibly reuse in a new function.

Technical information

The main structural principle of the building is the load-bearing wall system.
The material solution for most wall constructions is rammed earth. The walls, which are produced manually on the construction site, have a thickness of 450 mm. They are additionally insulated; in the place of the main hall where it is greater span, the wall construction is combined with reinforced concrete. The ceiling is supported by a hybrid system of wooden columns and supports. Service areas are supplemented with false ceilings. The suspended ceiling in the mourning hall is designed as a light stretched, hung on a grid construction.
All walls in contact with the filled terrain and in the basement are made from reinforced concrete, as are the walls in the service yard that carry the roof construction for greater span.
The earth walls in the exterior are built on concrete strips in order that
they do not come into contact with moisture from the terrain. They are protected from the top by a covering against rainwater and are further divided horizontally each approx. 60 cm by strip of lime mortar.
The exterior wall in the foyer is supported by a combination of reinforced concrete beams (supported by columns at the entrance) with earth
facade, which is designed as prefabricated and has a thickness of 170 mm.
In the interior, the walls, which are not directly made of earth, are additionally covered with prefabricated earth panels 70 mm thick.
The floors on the ground floor are designed as rammed earth walls.
The foundation construction is based on reinforced concrete slabs.