AUTHORS ENRIC BATLLE, JOAN ROIG, IVÁN SÁNCHEZ – ARCHITECTS CLIENT GIC ALTIMA TEAM LIVIA VALENTINI – ARCHITECT & LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
DOLORS FEU – AGRICULTURAL ENGINEER & LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
MARTA SANZ – ARCHITECT COLLABORATORS NATURALEA – WORLD NATURE SURFACE AREA 1973 sq. m LOCATION EL PAPIOL, BARCELONA START AND FINISH DATE 2017 PHOTOGRAPHYJORDI SURROCA
The action corresponds to the development of cluster 6 of the cemetery and consists of generating a large green terrace very elongated with a path, the ‘Path of the forest’, prepared to house a total of 1,100 new graves. This intervention, based on respect and conservation of the environment in the natural setting of Collserola Park, is part of the last extension of the cemetery, inaugurated in 1985.
The cemetery of Roques Blanques, with 30 years of history, has been able to adapt to changes in the demand of customers, proposing new burial paradigms, with the aim of facilitating the memory and the relationship of families with their deceased. The interest in respect for the environment and nature, have allowed us to propose a vanguard proposal in the new forms of burial, ecological and 100% biodegradable.
The Krainer wall is proposed, an innovative system based on bioengineering applied to the landscape to create ‘the Path of the Forest’: a technology that combines dead and living materials, which evolves over time, relating the degradation of the dead elements (the trunks) with the roots and the growth of living elements (plants with bright chromatic blooms), in a natural dynamic that evokes the intrinsic life cycle in the idiosyncrasy of a cemetery, as a meeting point between people and their ancestors, over time. The organic urns for the ashes of the graves are also made of chestnut wood, and are located in the spaces of the framework, forming a construction with materials from the place that becomes part of the natural biodynamics of the forest where it is located.
This new burial space is planted with specific plant species to create an aromatic environment enhancing biodiversity that revitalizes the spaces of use of the Collserola Park, col·labors in the sensitization of citizens and brings them closer to nature.