Family Vault in Elche

Architects: Estudio ARN
Location: Elche, Alicante, Spain
Architect In Charge: José Amorós, Luis Rubiato, Patricia Navarro
Technical Architects: José Vicente Carpena, Elena Rogel
Area: 18 sqm
Year: 2013

From the architect. The funerary volume is located between the existing boxes of niches and creates a compact and dense piece of stone that completes the horizontal landscape of this area of the cementery. A vault is created to preserve and protect the memory of the deceased and, at the same time has to generate an intimate and quite space for the family. This way, we propose a dense box of horizontal tiles of grey stone which is externally perforated by only two hollows: the door and the cross. Another iron sheet cross tags at the volume establishing the access and placing the name of the family. The door is a glass sliding plane hanging by this cross which softly reflects the landscape of flowers and graves in front of it, minimizing the view of the interior space and strengthening the symbolic and funerary character of this architectural piece. When it opens, the door shows a neutral space of big white marble walls with iron frames behind the twelve niches are. In the background, an only cross shaped hole makes the heavy white marble volume lighter and filters the light to the interior space.