Necropolis

Abstract

Sweden is one of the most secularized societies in the world and many swedes go through their entire lives without the involvement of religion, but that is not true for their death. The purpose of this master’s thesis is twofold: to propose a design for a truly secularized burial site, that celebrates death in a meaningful way without religion, where religion is welcome but not the norm, and secondly to find a typology for the burial ground that fits the urban landscape and do not occupy unnecessarily vast areas of land, useful for other types of urban expansion. Through dialogs with Sveriges Kyrkogård och Krematorie förening, manufacturers of cremator ovens and filter equipment, as well as reference projects, a room program was constructed. From this a connection diagram was established that in conjunction with the room program became the necessary toolbox in working with the separate flows and functions of the facility. On top of this separate focus studies were performed to further enhance and detail the design. Through historical and reference studies of architecture relating to death, primarily the thoughts of Étienne-Louis Boullée, his theory of architecture parlante and what he fittingly describes as the ‘Poetry of Architecture’ (Boullée, E. 1953), as well as crematories of Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, and France, a visual language is distilled that has the dignity and stature to manifest a memorial for our loved ones. The design of the necropolis is imbued with the symbolism and an architectural language that is associate with death while not making the religious connections. The building should communicate both civic authority as well as emotional resolution (Worpole 2016). The atmosphere of these grave settings is of paramount importance, it should not through mediocrity sit at odds with the emotional range of the funeral service or while visiting a dearly departed. Atmosphere is investigated through the nine qualities of atmosphere proposed by Peter Zumthor (2006) in his book Atmospheres.