Necropolis// Urbanity of death// Collective space// Ego-space

‘Si on allait au cimetière/ voir mon nom gravé sur la pierre/ Saluer les
morts /Dans la chaleur, le silence, à l’heure ou les cyprès se balancent…’
Les negresses vertes- Face à la mer.

 

Cemeteries are a popular research topic in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology.Rituals, social behaviours, status, conflicts, laws; all render in the ultimate expression of humanity facing its finality. In regard of architecture, XIXth century tombs and mausoleums express techniques and materials of the time, a phenomenon that seems to slowly fade throughout modernity in regard of the poor creativity of contemporary funerary art, clearly to be separated from memorial architecture.

Urban research often focuses on the place hold by cemeteries in the urban fabric, rather than on the structure of the cemetery itself. Can methodologies of research traditionally applied on the urban be applied to the necropolis? Typically, black plans, analysis of infrastructures, networks, flows, interconnections, transports, etc… are methods of study constrained to cities or territories. In this research, it will be attempted to analyse a cemetery as one would a city district.

Methodology:

1/ Panorama// Field research// Photography//

2/Historical background and precedent positions //

3/ Urban and architectural aspects// Flows and networks// Infrastructures//

4/ Typologies of graves// Plots analysis

–       Description (Type/Form/Materials/ Specificities)

–       Border

–       Landscape/ Vegetation

5- Ornaments, symbols and typography

6- Social, nominatives elements, population

7-  Hypothesis/ Conclusion

This is an on-going project.

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Parts of the research will be published in the magazine Horizonte, N° 6- under the title ‘ The inexorable finitude of human life (architecture of)’

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