Krematorium Linz

The competition project for the crematorium in Linz was created in 1999, immediately following the study for BVA1. A collage of transparent paper strips (C/alpha), made for the BVA1 study, had accidentally been left on the table. Although BVA1 is a study for an administrative building, and the crematorium is a place of ritual and at the same time industrial processes, one and the same collage was used as the basis for both projects. Volumes were traced from this template in a more direct way than for the BVA1 project, and constructed using models. A number of named volumes were created, such as a heart, a vase and a boat. In terms of associations, we used images from “Vital Use” by Rosemarie Trockel, and the inverted section sketch from Le Corbusier’s “Firminy”. We thus assembled a collection of parts – of body parts. In a process of free association, these body parts were assigned functions of the space allocation plan (each body part assuming a function of the plan). For instance, the viewing rooms were stacked in the vase, and the boat holds the farewell room. We then placed these body parts just like in the BVA1 project, in a series of horizontal levels, leaving only one level, the girder grid, i.e. the structural framework, which is a sort of raised horizon, or a plinth set above the structure’s collar. This was done in cooperation with Klaus Bollinger, who developed the structural frameworks in parallel with our work.

So we had suspended all these body parts, and had a collection of body parts, of functional parts, which had assimilated the space allocation plan, but were not yet linked to one another. We then introduced a path to this collection of suspended parts, a sort of walking path or church path, linking the loose parts by means of this path until it all made sense – as a crematorium.