Barcelona Funeral Home – Final year uni project

— Architecture

Please take time to read every word. Its better that way.
This is my site. It is located just off the Avinguda del Paral.lel in the Ciutat Vella (Old City) area of Barcelona. It is about 5 minutes walk from La Rambla and 5 minutes from the coast. This is a relatively busy area with a busy road, a school, and a cafe in very close proximity to the site. The concept for my building is ‘A sanctuary in a city’. The idea is to create a building and environment that protects and removes the mourners from the hustle and bustle of the busy Barcelona streets. The building will eliminate crossings of succesive funerals to enable mourners sufficient time, privacy, and freedom to mourn with their families and friends. For the mourners who are distressed and distracted it will provide a simple flow through the building. It will be as sensitive as possible to the needs of mourners. Dealing with death is a major part of life. Each culture has its own way of dealing with it. Different customs, different attitudes and different funeral services. The very nature of death reminds us of the frailty of life and our mortality. Death ultimately is the permanent loss of consciousness, which is a terrible thing to contemplate, and as a comfort, the belief in an after-life or heaven, and the permanent life of the ‘soul’ or ‘spirits’ is present in almost all religions. Because the preservation of the soul or spirits is very important to most cultures it is no surprise that there is a lot of symbolism associated with death, funerals and cemeteries. This symbolism is either there to appease the spirits or as a reference to life or death. I have incorporated much symbolism into my design. The feel and atmosphere I hope to achieve with the design of my funeral home. The plan of the building is designed as a journey to create an easy and sensitive funeral for the mourners. The layout eliminates cross over of different parties and allows the mourners time and freedom to mourn in peace. Ground Floor plan Basement plan Section A - Note the protective entrance courtyard and the light emitting 'light well'. Section B - Note the terraced garden that allows mourner free time to gather themselves after the service.