AR ALES VODOPIVEC

19/8/02

12:23 pm

N EW C EMETERY ,
S REBRENICE , S LOVENIA
ARCHITECT
A LES V ODOPIVEC

Page 60

Srebrenices new cemetery forms

the first phase of a larger project
for a forest graveyard which began
as an open competition in 1989.
The ensuing Balkans war and
Slovenias seccession from
Yugoslavia put the scheme on hold,
but it has at last been completed to
a design by Ales Vodopivec. The
brief for this first phase involved a
funerary hall with four smaller
attendant chapels, and a separate
ancillary building. Space for some
3000 graves has been carefully
created in the surrounding forest.
Comparisons with Asplund and
Lewerentzs Woodland Cemetery

in Stockholm (1920) are

irresistible, but the project is also
part of a wider tradition of
restrained Modernism (Vodopivec
describes it as an architecture of
silence) that engages in a dialogue
with nature in the manner of Kahn
and Aalto and reflects concerns
with ritual and memory.
The two parts of the complex
are aligned on a processional
north-south axis. This runs from
the main road to the north through
the forest to link with a series of
serpentine paths that meander
around the grave fields on the
eastern flank of the site. At its

south end, the axis terminates in a

mound of trees reserved for the
ashes of unidentified or unclaimed
bodies, giving special and poignant
prominence to the unknown dead.
The first public indication of the
cemeterys presence is a flower
shop set into the single-storey
ancillary building on the edge of
the main road. From its progress
through the forest, the
processional approach route
eventually opens out into a
clearing to reveal the main
funerary hall attached to a row of
family chapels. Arrival is denoted
by a simple colonnaded portico

LAST RITES
Deep in a Slovenian woodland, the material and the
spiritual are sensitively conjoined in a tranquil haven
for human leavetaking and remembrance.

2
3

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1
A processional axis leads up to
the main funerary chapel.
2
A simple colonnade, its form an
abstraction of the surrounding
trees, marks the entrance.
3
The chapel complex sits lightly in
the landscape.

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AR ALES VODOPIVEC

19/8/02

12:23 pm

Page 62

(traditionally used to mark a

consecrated space), its arboreal
form an abstraction of the
surrounding trees. Straddling the
road, the portico leads into the
main chapel, an austere box glazed
on three sides and enclosed by an
external layer of slatted timber
screens. Filtered through the
screens, the wooded landscape of
pine, beech, hornbeam and spruce
forms a serene backdrop to the
funerary rites.
In the smaller yet equally
ascetic family chapels, light filters
through precisely cut clerestory
strips so that the ceilings appear
to float above the walls.
Heightening the sense of
seclusion and contemplation,
each chapel overlooks a small
internal courtyard. Chapels are
linked and serviced on the east
side by a long corridor, animated

by light gently percolating through

vertical incisions along one
wall. Throughout the chapel
complex, materials such as
untreated oak, fairfaced concrete,
glass and local stone are as
consistently simple and reticent
as the spatial organization.
Vodopivecs modest complex of
buildings exhibits little that is
especially surprising or exciting,
yet in orchestrating a balance
between the material and the
spiritual, the architecture is
infused with a powerful tension
derived from the almost clinical
geometry of the manmade set
against the organic and enduring
presence of nature. Bare and
mute, freed of all image and
illusion, architecture and landscape
combine to form a sober, tranquil
and utterly fitting place for the final
leavetaking. CLAUDIA KUGEL

5
6
8

N EW C EMETERY ,
S REBRENICE , S LOVENIA
ARCHITECT
A LES V ODOPIVEC

ground floor plan of chapel complex (scale 1:350)

long section

B
G

F
H

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H

main entrance
service building
axis route
funerary hall and chapels
urn fields
grave fields
anonymous burial
parking

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

funerary hall
portico
chapels
patios
wcs
service entrance
timber screen
garden

Architect
Ales Vodopivec, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Project team
Ales Vodopivec, Nena Gabrovec
Structural engineer
Anton Berce
Landscape architects
Dusan Ogrin, Davorin Gazvoda
Photographs
Miran Kambic

62 | 7

site plan

4
Small family chapels are linked
by a long corridor. Light filters
through vertical slots in the
external wall.
5
Detail of family chapel.
6
Materials are used with exquisite
simplicity and reticence.

cross section

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