ADS1: The Cave and the Tent
Sung Lim
Although my studies at the University of Bath and the Royal College of Art contrast, pursuing balance in this amalgamation of identities has been a grateful exuviation of myself. I was fortunate to be a part of two London based studios throughout my bachelor’s degree; Urban Projects Bureau and Atelier Chang, working on a broad spectrum of residential and hospitality projects in the UK and South Korea.
Having this duality of South Korean heritage and British youth-hood perhaps brings me to the interest of juxtaposing ideologies. Hence, my thesis this year compares and combines the architecture of Aldo Rossi and Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe. Setting a foundation to that, I have written an essay about the theoretical background of Aldo Rossi’s San Cataldo Cemetery. Plotting the timeline and relationship between funerary and domestic architecture throughout history, and Rossi’s personal interpretation of that.
Among this opaque year of 2020, I confront divergence of identities. 10th year in the UK, which bearing will I determine in regards to my being. For all questions acquired in the past 2 years at the Royal College of Art, I thank my colleagues.
The space of bereaved has been limited of their occupational duration under the new regulations by the authority. In somber reality, the intergenerational memories fade in 3 generations, a century on average. In this generation of inevitable fading, ‘A Common Columbarium’ stands in pursuit of finding what could remain from our memories with the past.
In the words of Aldo Rossi’s theory, the funerary architecture of a given era in history reflects the respective domestic architecture. The two symbolic constructions of the contemporary era; reinforced concrete and metal frame are juxtaposed through the language of Aldo Rossi and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. A metaphoric parallel of Cave and Tent; the primitive question on the longevity of architecture and human memory.
As one contemplates our momentary longevity, life becomes an extraordinary state. Of those wanderers of Brompton Cemetery, one might seek a lone pause in a space of reflection. In a corner of the cemetery, a modest volume of a columbarium discloses its collective space of reflection on separated, yet reciprocal symbiosis of life and death.
Public Entrance
Public Entrance Detail
Private Entrance
Atmospheric Descend
Public Atrium
Ritual Room
Interment Corridor : Mid Floor
Interment Corridor : Top Floor
Window & Balustrade Detail
Notion of Cladding
Public Entrance Detail : Metal frame sits on top of the in-situ concrete volumes. Pre-cast terrazzo cladding façade slots in-between the metal frame. The separated language of reinforced concrete and metal frame reflects the interdependency of materials in contemporary construction.Its relationship with the ground and the connection to the contemporary architypes are portrayed in reaction to Rossi and Mies’s architectural theories.
Private Entrance : Private entrance to the columbarium is rather hidden and personal. Through the garden, at the bottom corner of the South façade, the metal handrail protrudes out gently to welcome the visitors. Descending through the long ramp, the procession experiences the length of the building with the bright sky gradually diminishing behind. The ramp turns at the sunken landing, offering a pause.
Atmospheric Descend : Through the metal doorframe, there lies the second descending into the ritual room. The atmosphere converts from external to internal. Sound from the inside of the columbarium resonates into the tunnel through the slits between the concrete volumes.
Public Atrium : Lewerentz’s idea of entering the linear space from the side states the secularity and non-religious aspect of the columbarium. The atrium space is connected to the ritual room through the open atmosphere but separated visually. The gentle echo of mourning fills the atrium when the ritual is in process, advocating collective sympathy.
Ritual Room : Three common elements of contemplative spaces are interpreted into the ritual rom: verticality, ceremonial plinth and candle lights. The candle lights offer individual focal points, while the view towards the sky draws a collective attention in distance. Personal ash ossuary is now placed into the columbarium’s hanging niche in this room.
Interment Corridor (Mid Floor) : The mourners now elevate up to one of the three interment corridors via the staircase. In prior to proceeding to their designated interment slot, the visitors are able to open the square window on one end of the corridor looking out to the Garden of Remembrance. This ritual of window opening is intended to offer a degree of relief to the sorrow.
Interment Corridor (Top Floor) : The proportion of the corridor is elaborated to be human scale. The proportion between concrete and metal is in balance in the interment corridors. The metal interment shelves in grid occupy one side of the view and the external terrazzo cladding on the other side. The shelves could be inhabited with flowers from the visitors highlighting the individual memory, whereas the niches on the side of the public atrium are monotonous in collectiveness.
Window & Balustrade Detail : The metal rail rim on each floor acts as a structural support to the concrete cladding façade and the hanging balustrade. The skylight void is created through the two hanging elements offering a drape of natural light. The hanging detail is designed in homage of Mies’s I-Column façade detail.
Notion of Cladding : The ‘wall elements’ on the interment floors are designed in the cladding system, and their details are expressed from the inside of the columbarium. The replaceable notion of cladding system brings up a question of longevity. The configuration will change every visit. Different elements of varying manufacturing methods will decay in different rates. The only perpetual element of the columbarium would be the separated compound of the concrete foundation and the metal roof structure, metaphorical parallel of life and death.
