Crematory in Igualada’s Cemetery Park

Igualada, Spain

Photo © Jesus Arenas

Crematoriums

Architects: Estudio Carme Pinós

Year: 2017
Client: Funeraria Anoia
Team: Carme Pinós, Samuel Arriola, Elsa Marti, Jeanne de Bussac

This project responds to our desire to integrate the new building in the cemetery grounds without distorting the great poetics these emanate.

We have located the crematorium on the top of a hill that holds the chapel and other installations, in such a way that the new building cannot be seen from the cemetery. Nevertheless, from it you can still perceive the atmosphere and beauty of the cemetery itself.

The driving force behind this project is to understand the situation the program implies with utmost sensitivity. Our approach has been to relate to nature by generating a dialogue between the visitors and the distant landscape seen from the large windows of the building.

The slightly raised location of the crematorium also responds to this idea, thus it is situated just above a set of aromatic plants.Our intention is to convey the sensation of being on a different level to that on which our daily lives happen and which relates us to that life.

Despite the fact that it could be considered a purely technical building, we wanted to give it all the poetics required by the frame of mind of those who will visit the space.

We have used materials that relate the building to the cemetery. On the one hand, the concrete a predominant material in the cemetery- gives the crematorium a sculptural character while, on the other, the ceramic enclosure gives it a less monolithic and more welcoming dimension.