The work aims to offer a comprehensive reflection on the causes and possible solutions to the phenomenon of the crisis of funeral rituals. It is based on the concept of an individual approach to the needs of the bereaved (a solution can be offered by the philosophy of natural burial, but ideally also by the reform of traditional funeral services), on the artistic approach to the farewell journey and, last but not least, on consideration of the materiality of new architecture, which has a direct impact on people, nature and their mutual relationship. Earth constructions represent an ingenious cycle in which the individual building phases - construction, use and disposal - work in harmony with the environment and in unlimited continuity. Such a cycle is an optimal metaphor for the essence of human life itself.
The urban design envisages the division of the territory into several program-integrated sectors. This idea is based both on the practical consideration of the task and on the effort in the project to consider the location of an ecological zone suitable for a natural cemetery. The different program focus also aims to offer enough alternatives to fulfill the individual preferences of survivors. It also reacts to the living terrain and burial methods used in the surrounding countries, which better deal with the aesthetic or orderly management of cemeteries.
The phasing of the new cemetery would presuppose, in the first phase, a continuation of classical burials in the currently used area. Due to the slope of the site, they would continue the current location of the urn graves with a terrace with new urn walls.
In the other two sectors in the direction of the rising terrain, places for classic burials with less density are proposed, or taking into account the preservation of green areas through burial in terrace walls.
This is followed by a strip of forest that serves as a visual division of the cemetery grounds - a green filter. This area allows for natural burial, but it also represents a "path", so it has a more free character.
In the upper part of the territory there is a new house of mourning, and in the cover of the top of the hill there is a forest cemetery with a circular place for carrying out natural farewell ceremonies.
The main idea of the building design is the unity of life with nature and the natural a cycle in which nothing ends but transforms and continues on in a different form. The never-ending cycle is shown primarily in the construction axis and in the material approach.
The optimal place for the location of the object is at the top of the hill, as the terrain is less rugged in this place. Place is relative near the road, which is advantageous from a functional point of view, however, an object placed directly on the terrain on a hill can be a disturbing barrier in nature contact with the environment. That's why I decided to partially sink the house and make it accessible from the already designed road that connects the area with the main one by road. The view from the hill therefore remains undisturbed and from the lower part of the area is more in harmony with the environment.
The house is designed mainly from rammed earth constructions. The idea of a never-ending cycle consists in the use of excavated earth directly for the construction of the object, in the perception of connection with nature during the life of the building and in the smooth return of the material to the environment after its disappearance, possibly reuse in a new function.
