Hongkou Cemetery: A City of the Dead
The design seeks to respond to the ever-increasing need for more accessible burial places in Shanghai by exploring a balance between efficient density and quality of space.
Project Media
Panel 1
The design lifts the building off the ground to create a landmark that intends to suspend disbelief, freeing up space for a park that spans the entire lot. This way, people can appreciate the building from the inside out, looking to the vast vortex atrium at the heart of the building without needing to step inside: an inverted frontality.
Panel 2
The building is composed of 4 structurally independent quadrants, each fastened to a super-column trunk using a suspended cable construction technique. Vortex passageways bridge the quadrants at every level. The separation between quadrants generates a sundial effect, in which sunlight cuts directly across the entire site twice a day.
Panel 3
The design invites people downward into the large pantheonic lobby. From here, one can rise into the tombs via one of four trunks, helping to direct circulation more effectively. The entrance level also functions as a crematorium. From arrival to urn, the process makes the round of the plan as a smooth and functional enfilade.
Panel 4
On the outside perimeter, the program and order visible in plan is exposed, as if peeling off the exterior façade to reveal a visually massive stack of cubic burial places out of which paths and rooms are carved. The cemetery paths generate a surreal endless effect that reminds of the magnitude of existence and one’s place within it.
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PUBLISHED ON 17th December 2022
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Very ambicious project, there is a very well understanding of process concerning the city fabric; probably a little bit dense in terms of dimensions in relationship with the site, but structurally well planned.