The cemetery is conceived as a park, as ‘the house of the living’, a place to enjoy the sun and tranquillity any day of the week. The configuration of the park takes advantage of a promontory in the terrain to create a longitudinal eyelet and create a zigzagging downhill route, until it reaches a stream located a few metres below. The complete project envisaged the three arms of the zigzag, although in the first phase only one has been built and the beginning of the second is hinted at. The niches are arranged on both sides of the route, forming intermediate terraces. Transversal steps provide access to the lateral terraces, generating a movement of ascent and descent charged with allegorical connotations. The construction of the groups of niches is always done with prefabricated concrete parts, as well as the cladding of the retaining walls. The result is that the deceased are always underground, and visitors to the park descend to the lower level until they are on the same level as the deceased. The chapel is located at the entrance of the route, inducing a ritual that begins with the funeral and goes down to each niche. Enric Miralles is buried in one of the pantheons bordering the square that marks the turn between the first and second arms.
Three large crosses welcome visitors and as soon as we enter the cemetery we find the mass grave. This is an element that is not usually a prominent feature and is usually placed in a discreet spot, but in this case the architects wanted to place it deliberately at the beginning. The pit is defined by a large wall with identical geometric pieces of prefabricated concrete. The repetition, whether of geometric or vegetal elements, generates gaps, shadows and patterns, permanently animated by the play of light, the leaves and the peculiar paving. The promenade ends in a cul-de-sac where the tombs and mausoleums have been placed. The project was not completed, and a second and third level of niches were added, connected by a staircase. The different blocks of niches are arranged in such a way as to adapt to the terrain. The attenuated form achieved by the overlapping of prefabricated caissons, the stone cladding of some parts and the roof landscaping help to achieve integration. The paving in the access areas and in front of the niches has recessed railway crossings. A curved concrete cantilever protects the fronts of the niches. It is on the second level where we find the mausoleum of Enric Miralles himself, who died in 2000. The chapel and the autopsy laboratory, which were on the third level, were not finished either, and were left half-built. It is possible to walk around inside and is in the chapel space, both inside and on the outside roof.
From the main entrance, a winding path leads down to the main burial area. The path is lined with ‘loculi’, niches, which surround the depressed space as a transition from one level to another. The path is conceptualised as the river of life moving between a wide open expanse of the mountains as isolated memorial space, dug below the horizon. The circulation through the cemetery is more processional than functional – it is not only focused on the organisation of the plots in the cemetery, but rather on the experience it is able to convey. The materials of the Igualada Cemetery tie the project to the landscape. Miralles and Pinós use earthy materials and concrete, stone and wood in the project. The gabion walls and wooden crossings embedded in the concrete give a stark appearance and evoke the harsh and difficult landscape of the site, giving the environment an aesthetic that is at once natural and transcendental, stimulating sensory and intellectual experience.
A modification was made to the boundaries between the municipal districts of Òdena and Igualada in 1969-70, leaving the land where the cemetery is now located in the municipal district of Igualada. The old cemetery had become too small and the Igualada Town Council held a tender in 1983 to build a new cemetery where we are now, in an industrial estate, next to the Òdena stream. The winning project was a proposal far removed from the conception of traditional cemeteries: it was not only a place of rest and memory for the deceased but also a place for walking, reflection and dialogue with nature. The project was called ‘Zementiri’ and consisted of three Z-shaped axes. It was built in different phases between 1985 and 1994, but it is unfinished, as only the uppermost part of the Z has been completed.
Work began in 1988 and the 1st phase was inaugurated in 1992.
It won the F.A.D. award in 1992.
