Andrea Dragoni: Cemetary Complex

Cemetery Complex by Andrea DragoniWilliam Richard Lethaby once said that human beings can't understand the world as a whole. They must move away from it and only after performing this detachment can they reach the understanding. The Team of Andrea Dragoni Architetto apparently took his words to heart while constructing an extension of Gubbio Cemetery. Gubbio is a small Italian town, famous for its medieval heritage. The architects of Andrea Dragoni were commissioned to extend the town's historic cemetery. The complex consists of linear blocks arranged in a way that resumes the specific rhythm of the surrounding landscape. The concept of urban settlement is emphasised by the inclusion of large cubic enclosures, designed to be open public spaces. These „squares of silence” are separated from the cemetery and offer a moment of reflection and contemplation. They were inspired by an American artist James Turrell’s Skyspaces - a series of rooms with an opening in the ceiling, which enabled visitors to perceive the sky. „This relationship with the sky intends to define space that is also time, in such a way that you can find yourself again, a space that thrusts the horizon upwards like a metaphor of the boundaries of heaven, the last horizon of our life in a modern city," describes the solution Andrea Dragoni. Simultaneously, the open roof is a re-interpretation of Leon Battista Alberti’s view on the significance of a window, that the great Renaissance humanist considered to be the perfect architectural artifice to evoke the state of peacefulness. The Squares of Silence are even more suggestive thanks to the contribution of two important Italian artists, Sauro Cardinali and Nicola Renzi. Invited to collaborate with the archiects at the very beginning of the process, they created a series of site-specific installations that capture the changing light. The extension of Cemetery Complex, although designed to be a public space separated from the cemetery, carries a strong religious connotation. „The sky thus framed opens the mind to the reign of the invisible and allows to acquire a more aerial and spiritual dimension," says Andrea Dragoni. The openings in the ceilings combined with the artistic installations enable visitors to look at their existence from the distance, providing an unusual spiritual experience. Words: Thisispaper Photography: Courtesy of Andrea Dragoni