The private chapel is located in Madonna dell’Olmo’s cemetry, periphery of Cuneo.
The idea is to have an object on a plinth, detached from the ground and elevated for a sense of sacredness. The concrete plinth is covered with a precious carpet and the object is cast in rough concrete and subsequently wrapped up with an ornamental gesture. The object is a room that establishes a profound vertical relationship exclusively with the sky, a spatial experience given by the differentiation between the square floor plan and the circular opening in the roof.
Although the materials and techniques used are naked, their proportions and placement are delicately considered to emphasize their relationships. The tombs are placed in the underground and the upper room is a place for intimate reminiscence and meditation.
The cemetery’s regulations permitted only natural stone and concrete finishes and imposed strict guidelines regarding the maximum floor area. Consequently, the project adopts a cubic volume that fully utilizes the allowable floor area within the plot, resulting in sides measuring 270 cm.
The design features a tripartite division of the elevation, both vertically and horizontally, which defines the main entrance, a surprisingly low opening, and determines the dimensions of the travertine panels, each measuring 190 x 90 cm. The upper section, left as rough in-situ concrete, enhances the perception of a massive covering. However, this impression is contradicted from the interior, where a conventional 20 cm slab has been cast.
The formwork of the covering is thought to highlight centrality, while the dimensions of the circular opening are calculated to respect the proportions of the travertine panels.
This spatial relation between primary forms articulates the incommensurability between earthly stability and celestial openness. The interplay of light through the circular opening adds weather-like qualities to the space, changing throughout the day and emphasizing the relationship between weather, time and space. Text description by the architects.
