The thickness of emptiness. Funerary Chapel.

The Thickness of Emptiness. Funerary Chapel. The project responds to a primitive ritual, to an almost ancestral need that nonetheless remains in many cultures: that of burying the closest members of the family clan and of invoking their memory. The architecture of this space is based, therefore, on the consideration of two elements that are equally ancestral to architecture: light, and gravity. Light, of ungraspable speed, is considered a reflection of the idea of timeless, of that which is ideal or divine. On the contrary, the inexorable action of gravity evokes the passage of time, the earthly. Both concepts are used to shape the material that constitutes the building. Establishing a clear dialogue that develops vertically. This way, externally, the mausoleum is perceived from the distance, like a forceful volume, punctually perforated that keeps in its interior valuable aspects for the memory. The upper part of this one, smooth and abstract, rests on a rougher and earthy one, marked by the imprint of a wooden formwork, of something that was once alive. Inside, this vertical dialogue is emphasized. Large and heavy plates of reinforced concrete, of defined geometry, descend from the roof. They are suspended at a height of one meter over the ground without touching the walls. The feeling of estrangement that this produces is only comparable to the feeling of loss of a loved relative. The light that filters homogeneously through the concrete pieces themselves, however, seeks to evoke the consolation that hopeful memories bring. In parallel, the brightness of the polished surfaces of the marble reproduces a mirror image of this space, which reminds us that the essential aspects of life form a cycle in which everything repeats itself.