The Last Garden
Granarolo, Italy
Cemetery expansion, 2022
Client: Municipality of Granarolo dell’Emilia
Together with Alessandro Gaiani
Cemeteries could eloquently illustrate the societies that built them. Being inevitably charged with symbolic dimensions, these places provide a vivid representation of the transformation of cultural values in spatial terms. The cemetery of Granarolo dell’Emilia includes the most interventions next to each other, starting with the original monumental area to the late 60s brutalist extension and the recent additions. Due to the COVID-19 emergency, the rapid increase in the number of deceased has underlined the necessity of a re-organization of the cemetery and a coherent strategy for further expansions. The proposal frames the site in relation to the territory of the Pianura Padana and its specific landscape quality.
Shifting the understanding of the cemetery from a monumental infrastructure to a peculiar ecosystem, the project locates the further extension at the limit of the area as a built margin of the site to assemble the different existing fragments. The terrain between the different parts is remodelled as a canal to respond to extreme rainfall and collect the water from the site. New bridges connect the existing to the final extension, allowing for a new perspective on the cemetery.
The extension consists of a sequence of courtyards, defined on the perimeter by the volumes with the burial recesses. The simplicity of these constructions reflects the rural buildings of the area, humbly enriched by the terracotta colours of the coating panels of the façade.
The Last Garden
Granarolo, Italy
Cemetery expansion, 2022
Client: Municipality of Granarolo dell’Emilia
Together with Alessandro Gaiani
Cemeteries could eloquently illustrate the societies that built them. Being inevitably charged with symbolic dimensions, these places provide a vivid representation of the transformation of cultural values in spatial terms. The cemetery of Granarolo dell’Emilia includes the most interventions next to each other, starting with the original monumental area to the late 60s brutalist extension and the recent additions. Due to the COVID-19 emergency, the rapid increase in the number of deceased has underlined the necessity of a re-organization of the cemetery and a coherent strategy for further expansions. The proposal frames the site in relation to the territory of the Pianura Padana and its specific landscape quality.
Shifting the understanding of the cemetery from a monumental infrastructure to a peculiar ecosystem, the project locates the further extension at the limit of the area as a built margin of the site to assemble the different existing fragments. The terrain between the different parts is remodelled as a canal to respond to extreme rainfall and collect the water from the site. New bridges connect the existing to the final extension, allowing for a new perspective on the cemetery.
The extension consists of a sequence of courtyards, defined on the perimeter by the volumes with the burial recesses. The simplicity of these constructions reflects the rural buildings of the area, humbly enriched by the terracotta colours of the coating panels of the façade.
