Cemetery Batschuns
Batschuns, Austria, 2001
Client
Pfarrgemeinde Batschuns
Architecture
Marte.Marte
Builder
Lehm Ton Erde Baukunst GmbH
The cemetery, located next to the church of Holzmeister, was expanded and supplemented with a small chapel for the dead. The existing arrangement of church and cemetery consists of two separate elements, which have been consciously placed next to each other, right in the middle of a spacious and open rural area. The concept of the project supplements this basic framework by another element, which respectfully distances itself from the old cemetery by an elevated ramp. The traditional way of a boundary, with enclosure walls, was replaced with the creation of a new, space defining and shallow plateau. On the outermost side of the plateau the discreet extents of the cubical chapel rise up, separating the ecclesiastic off the secular space. The chapel which excels with its reduced form opens the dialog between the traditional and the contemporary. The respectful coexistence doesn’t eliminate the qualities of the old cemetery, but rather makes them more obvious. In this arrangement the new comes so close to the old, without it harming or touching it spaciously or formally.
(pictures: Bruno Klomfar)
