The spaces of symbolic last farewell — cemetery chapels, crematories or columbaria — are a special kind of sepulchral architecture and art. Regardless of beliefs and convictions, they are a backdrop for reverie, longing and remembrance, a framework for mourning and the search for solace. How does the columbarium complex in the Radom cemetery designed by the BDR Architekci team respond to this need?
The central columbarium site was located on the main axis of the cemetery, in the place where a chapel was formerly planned to be built
Photo: Jakub Certowicz © BDR Architekci
A one-stage competition for the design of a columbarium complex at the municipal cemetery in Radom, one of the largest in Poland, was decided in autumn 2017. The Firlej cemetery, which has existed since the 1970s, houses nearly 30,000 graves, with funerals of more than a thousand people taking place there each year, which means that the area of the necropolis must be constantly expanded. The construction of a columbarium in the heart of the cemetery, giving the possibility of a more compact form of burial was intended to help slow down this process.
The complex consists of seven modules - six cemetery chambers of similar size and a larger, adapted pre-burial house
Photo: Jakub Certowicz © BDR Architekci
The local branch of SARP helped the city organize the project. According to the rules of the competition, the site was to have an ecumenical character, and the proposed solution, which would accommodate about 2,000 niches for urns, would take into account the heritage, customs and rituals associated with funeral ceremonies, while introducing new standards related to cremation and the placement of urns with ashes in columbariums. The 1st Prize in the competition was won by the proposal of the Warsaw team BDR Architekci (2nd place went to the Wroclaw studio REWIZJA, and 3rd to ENONE ARCHITEKTURA I DESIGN from Pabianice).
ground plan and roof plan
© BDR Architekci
the invisible
The architecture of this type of building has a special meaning for mourners, being a frame for the painful process of saying goodbye and a place for deep reverie. The BDR Architekci studio team proposed balanced and intimate spaces that allow visitors to the graves of their loved ones to take solace and reflect in the minimalist labyrinth of the columbarium.
The columbarium modules, which are open from the top, have varying heights and are made of prefabricated concrete elements
Photo: Jakub Certowicz © BDR Architekci
The complex consists of seven modules — six cemetery chambers of similar size and a larger, adapted pre-burial house (cold storage) — clustered around a central square, an ecumenical place of gathering marked by light walls. This square was located on the main axis of the cemetery, on the spot where the chapel was formerly planned to be built. The central wall of this space is adorned with a line from Jan Kochanowski's trene describing the emptiness felt by the poet after the loss of his daughter: "Full of us, and as if there were no one: With one little soul so many are gone."
The squares of the columbarium chambers and the cemetery square were laid with permeable material - local stone ballast
photo: Jakub Certowicz © BDR Architekci
The choice of the quote was not only due to its emotional message — the architects drew on locality in their design, which is why they reached for the work of Kochanowski, whose life was associated with Czarnolas, less than 50 kilometers from Radom.
The localness is present in almost every element of the completed building, the designers explain — the local sandstone, the floor slabs, and above all in what is invisible — in the work and effort of local contractors, subcontractors, stonemasons and craftsmen, whose contribution was of great importance.
The floor slabs were designed and realized with an individual finish at a Radom-based concrete element manufacturing plant
photo: Jakub Certowicz © BDR Architekci
a space for reverie
The columbarium modules, open from the top, have varying heights, and their construction is made of prefabricated concrete elements (both the niches for the urns and the main structure of the building were realized in this way). Placed on a continuous bench of reinforced concrete, the attics surround intimate courtyards, thus creating seemingly closed, secluded interiors.
module cross-section and axonometry
© BDR Architekci
From the outside, the entire establishment — the chambers and the pre-burial house with a rebuilt facade — was clad with oblong sandstone blocks from local quarries. Sandstone was also used to make shelves and plaques with concealed fixtures that allow niches to be opened and closed — the project's authors explain, talking about the materials used. — The floor slabs were designed and realized with an individual finish in a Radom-based plant that produces concrete elements. The squares of the columbarium chambers and the cemetery square were poured with permeable material — local stone ballast — the architects add.
monochromatic columbarium space
Photo: Jakub Certowicz © BDR Architekci
In this space of reverie and recollection, separated from the hustle and bustle, they kept in mind such elements as benches made of solid wood, a consistent visual identity made of raw brass to find the ashes of a loved one, a water intake point and lighting that gently guides through the passages between modules. The whole is complemented by spot greenery — edged fields planted with creeping shrubs and fifty pine trees.
The architects also took care of the lighting, which gently leads through the passages between the modules, and a consistent visual identity made of raw brass
photo: Jakub Certowicz © BDR Architekci
