Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2024

auf­­ba­h­­run­g­­sha­l­­le-kema­­ten-an-der-krems-oo / Austria

Anna Moser

Pro­get­ti­sta Arch. MMAG Anna Moser
Loca­tion Berg­feld­straße 2a, 4531 Kema­ten an der Krems, Austria
Nazio­ne Austria
Desi­gn Team
Anno 2021
Cre­di­ti Fotografici

Pho­to­gra­phy: Gre­gor Graf, www.gregorgraf.net

Foto ester­ni

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

Moser und Hager archi­tec­ts: the tran­sien­ce of all ear­thly – (Text by Roma­na Ring)

Can archi­tec­tu­re explain death? Dispel fear? Give sola­ce? Perhaps not. What it defi­ni­te­ly can do is: pro­vi­de an appro­pria­te set­ting for our ulti­ma­te desti­ny. With the new fune­ral hall in Kema­ten an der Krems, Moser und Hager Archi­tek­ten have crea­ted such a set­ting, a pla­ce that con­veys the ancient sto­ry of death and (buil­ding) cul­tu­re in the lan­gua­ge of our time.

Moser und Hager Archi­tek­ten draw on ele­men­ts we have kno­wn for mil­len­nia: the wall that sepa­ra­tes the district of the depar­ted from the world of living, for exam­ple, defi­nes the new faci­li­ty just as stri­kin­gly as does the motif of the thre­shold and the path that leads from here to the hereaf­ter. In Kema­ten, this path fol­lo­ws the nar­row lane from the Roma­ne­sque parish church in the cen­tre of the vil­la­ge, on the edge of the set­tle­ment now domi­na­ted by sin­­gle-fami­­ly homes and com­mer­cial buil­dings, and ends in the cen­tral axis of the ceme­te­ry, thus deter­mi­ning the posi­tion of the entran­ce. This rou­te is the bac­k­bo­ne on which the new facility’s fra­mework of sym­bols and spa­ces is built.

A wall made from the con­glo­me­ra­te sto­ne typi­cal of the Krems Val­ley extends the ceme­te­ry wall and enve­lo­pes the fune­ral hall, which rises direc­tly at the road­si­de. The wall con­ti­nues, shif­ted back a lit­tle from the street line, and crea­tes a small secon­da­ry volu­me, thus defi­ning the main entran­ce and the fore­court to the hall.

The wall offers pro­tec­tion from the street noi­se and pry­ing eyes. It clo­ses out the outsi­de world, yet it does not clo­se off the spa­ce. The deli­ca­te con­cre­te shell of the roof floa­ts abo­ve the wall, sup­por­ted by slen­der T‑profiles pai­red to crea­te a cru­ci­form sec­tion. Throu­gh the trans­pa­rent glass enclo­su­re of the fune­ral hall, your gaze drif­ts out­ward to the shel­te­red inter­ve­ning spa­ce and, fol­lo­wing the scen­ding pla­nes of the roof, up into tree-top-fra­­med sky. The chan­ging day­light and moving clouds com­ple­ment the ear­thly weight of the sto­ne. Added to this is the warm appeal of the oak wood that is used for the sim­ple sea­ting and which clads both end walls of the fune­ra­ry spa­ce, which can be divi­ded in half with a hea­vy cur­tain. The rear wall, which is fit­ted with two sim­ple, mova­ble brass cros­ses as a bac­k­drop for fune­ral cere­mo­nies, discree­tly con­ceals the doors to the ancil­la­ry rooms, which are also acces­si­ble from outsi­de. At the fore­court end, the woo­den wall panels can be rota­ted on asym­me­tri­cal­ly posi­tio­ned axes to crea­te two lar­ge ope­nings shiel­ded by the woo­den panels. Beyond this thre­shold, the inte­rior of the hall gra­dual­ly tran­si­tions into the fore­court, which slo­pes up slightly towards the out­buil­ding and is sha­ded by the ove­rhang of the plan­ted green roof. Rai­n­wa­ter seeps into a brass chan­nel run­ning down the midd­le, whe­re it is col­lec­ted. From here it drips down into the water basin desi­gned by Gerhard Brandl – ano­ther block, this one of con­cre­te and sunk into the ground. It might remind us of the tran­sien­ce of all ear­thly things and of the cycle of nature.

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