Four Cemeteries by Studio Elastico

The design of cemeteries and other places related to death tend to fall outside the purview of architects, but Torino, Italy's Studio Elastico comes close to specializing on this much-neglected "building type," with four projects completed so far. The Borgaretto Cemetery, completed in 2005, is the most recent, acting as a hardscape plaza within a larger park. Accessed by a bright red bridge, the multi-level cemetery was conceived as a mass of stones and gravel that will surely be enlivened by flowers and other mementos left for the departed.

Where the Borgaretto Cemetery is about landscape and spaces carved from the earth, 2004's Budioa Cemetery is about an object: a rectilinear piece sitting within a walled area as an extension of an existing cemetery. The concrete box with large recesses and a planted roof is but one piece in planned extensions (something all cemeteries must contend with) that will curve to create "streets" for visitors. The perimeter wall is also made of concrete, though in a more playful manner than the burial tomb.

Villanova Cemetery from 1999 was Studio Elastico's first commission and perhaps the reason for their continued involvement in designing for the dead. But here the architects contend they "designed around the living...where the dead, nature, and modern living coexist harmoniously." Curving brick walls define the cemetery's approach side, while gabions define the perimeter adjacent to farmland. The design is intended to be at a lower scale than traditional Italian cemeteries, to blend into its surroundings.

The last project is the Pordenone Crematorium, completed the same year as Villanova. This project runs counter to Italy's Catholic burials that frown upon cremation, though the country is slowly adjusting to the option. In addition to the crematorium itself, there are waiting gardens, a chapel, and autopsy rooms. Where the cemeteries are rooted, this design features a box raised on angled pilotis, using architecture to illustrate the difference between the two means of not only laying the body to rest, but also letting the living say goodbye.