Funeral Center | António dos Santos Barbosa

Architecture

The architect was given the opportunity to leave his comfort zone. The study and development procedures were based on ideologies that go far beyond technical knowledge and artistic sensitivity.

Profane and sacred, construction and religiosity, reality and imaginary were dualities that came together to trigger an internal thought processes. Life beyond death.

Thus, the object was built according to these assumptions: birth, life, death and life beyond death. This guiding line traced the first stages: two lines, one on the ground floor and another one on the ceiling and façade.

The ground line starts outside, a channel on the border wall. Water as a source of life symbolizes birth, not spontaneous, but provoked, intentional. The overflowing water runs along a solid granite line, a route that crosses the outer atrium, the narthex, the main entrance, the nave, the altar (where the body is placed during the vigil service) ending at the foot of an olive tree. The olive tree symbolizes longevity. A timeless element. The ground line is a path that symbolizes life. A line with more or less water, a longer or shorter path but the aim is ultimately to be like the olive trees.

The upper line, with equal dimensions, begins with life: the drinking fountain, which represents eternal life. A parallel life that after death rises symbolically through the line to the rooftop, in the altar area, as if ascending to heaven. We realize then that there is no death, there is another life that is not earthly. After the ascent, it becomes eternal again, descending to the olive tree.

These were the guidelines: a being, with the same beginning and with the same end, aiming for eternity. These ideas were the beginning of this small chapel.

A cohesive concrete object drawn through lines. Lines that represent a longitudinal path of life and its stages.

Everything else was done with the necessary additions to complete the project: sanitary facilities for p.c.m.r., exhibition and sale area, thanatopraxy area, changing rooms, transition and storage.

This sum of horizontal and vertical volumes was limited by an existing construction, so it was necessary to ensure that the alignment was maintained. In addition, the subsequent removals also completed the south elevation.

On the exterior, there was a need for green to ensure freshness, breeze, calmness, a feeling of lightness and well-being that would extend to the building. The green cuts the concrete in its implantation. Internal patios and paths with bigger or smaller openings towards the horizon and the vertical infinity. A granite slab makes the transition between public and private space. The spiked grass grid joins the two plots that belong to the same property. To the south, a car drive was designed to transport the corpse to the thanatopraxy room and chapel.

The ground floor is massive, dense, with few openings, for prayer and silence, closed to the outside, for meditation and contemplation in the chapel area.

The upper floor, like the ground floor, is a grey concrete block closed to the outside, with small openings to allow ventilation and light, these are restricted zones for workers.