The Landscape as Structure

This project develops a new cemetery in Málaga. Starting from the analysis of the site, towards a specific proposal and its technical development. The objectives are: renovating Spanish cities’ attitude towards death, resuming traditional features from the past and becoming part of the landscape where it sets up.

The attitude of cities towards death reveals religious, social, economic and cultural features of itself. In the case of urban areas in Andalucía, the estrangement (not just physical) between the city and this other-city is clear. In Málaga (one of the Spanish cities with a higher index of incinerations and where most of the population is catholic), the construction of new columbariums in urban spaces is growing as a response to the detachment of the currently active cemetery from the city. In the light of these facts, it appears that cemeteries, as urban infrastructures, are going to become ruins unless they update to the current needs of the population.\nThe project proposes the creation of a landscape system, a new city park, which collaborates with the stream functionality. The system adapts to the existing topography by creating platforms at different heights and generating a path with various levels of privacy. The highest levels are exposed, linked to the city and have no funerary activity. The lower ones are much more intimate and have a greater relation with nature. The proposal includes a new network of paths to facilitate the circulation in the site and help to enjoy the existing natural variety of the area. The terrace system (originally used in farming) has many advantages: it helps the water infiltration, it controls the erosion and the soil loss and it allows the growth of vegetation.\nWorking with the terrain contributes to the settlement of the funerary structures. These are variations of a basic cross section that gives room to different burial typologies, resting spaces, level connections, viewpoints and walking paths. All of them have the same dimensions in order to make a system of interchangeable pieces that can be placed according to the needs of each phase of the growing plan without affecting the general organization of the project. The wall is the key element of this modules and it is used to create the structure, to divide the space and to improve the climate control. Flower beds are laid out over them and along the borders of the terraces, composing the project's geometry in plan.