Igualada Cemetery

by Anatxu Zabalbeascoa

In Enric Miralles's work, the site - whether natural landscape or urban grid - is always at the forefront of the final design. At the Igualada Cemetery, situated on the outskirts of Barcelona, the topographical order is framed by sinuous curves and trenches, yet the concrete embankments, overhanging parapets and converging edges relate to the setting as the initially perceived elements within the overall perspective of the space. The disciplines of architecture and landscape are here fused to create a place of tremendous force: burial niches are ranked and stacked to form great funerary walls incised deep into the landscape, and rising to culminate in the entrance marked by great sculptural forms and the mortuary and chapel buildings.