Eternal Hill Columbarium
Funerals and grief are full of emotions. We often face the cemetery, the last place we say farewell to our family and loved ones with fear. What kind of architecture will be able to drive away the fear, bear the emptiness of emotion and memory, and at the same time be a space for us to settle down and recollect the past?
We need a carrier for grief and loss, it does not mean a carrier for what is left behind after we passed, but instead, we need the kind of space that can encourage us to face and wander over our past.
This cemetery needs to carry 70,000 past, which means it needs to contain 70,000 irreparable regrets.
The cemetery, is located on Hsinchu the Wind City, sitting on top the Xiang Shan Hill overlooking the sea and exposed to the brave wind currents that flow across the Taiwan Strait. The design and construction method, of this wind tower, tells stories and memories of the city.
Its introspective skin provides the building with the perfect protection against the undesired strong gusts of wind while the tilt on the walls introduce soft blows from different directions.
Mourning rituals involve placing incense, candles, and flowers on the “mountainside”, these practices create a wall and a chance for us to be lost in our thoughts.
The wall is an element that constructs distance. In this case, by tilting the walls at a different angle creates a visual of it gradually leaving the griever. These walls create a distance of departure, instead of separation.
The stacking of slanted overlapped walls gives its characteristic look to the main volume that allocates the columbarium program. This stacking constructs a vision of being at the feet of the hillside surrounded by mountains. The walls, slanted and opened to the sky, register the rays of the sun that warm the atmosphere and accompany us to confront fear. The perimeter built-in planters washed by the natural light at the base of these slanted walls creates a path in which to wander around and get transported into pleasant stories.
One hundred and fifty nine meters of loggia establish a connection between the former cemetery building and the new, creating a place for encounters and gathering for the people that come to grieve. This shaded colonnade shelters the traditional offering stands set during the mourning festivals and as an endless hallway leads people into the man-made plateau on which the columbarium stands.
The Plateau that lifts the main volume houses the transitional program such as the worship spaces and gathering courtyards. This platform is perforated by a series of shaded patios, interconnected by sheets of water that lead the guests into the atrium. These patios cool down the breeze that flows through them into the atrium.
The Atrium is shaped by the overhang stacking of the four levels that conform the columbarium area. This simple gesture creates the naturally lit perimeter cloister and also opens the space for visually interconnected pathways that circle around the atrium. Crowning it, an in-situ concrete skylight, pulling down the the roof towards the middle of the atrium.
Glances of the midday sun sneak through the oculus and lift the roof structure, illuminate the terraced promenades while gently lay down light and hope in the courtyard.
