SPARE SPACE
With their award winning
Secret Garden Project,
Tomas Ghisellini Architects
ADVANCES the Western concept of
a park-cemetery using travertine
to design rational forms.
A
fter graduating from University of Ferrara in
2002, Tomas Ghisellini established his own
architectural firm in 2009 again in Ferrara.
The architects of the office focus on issues
of sustainability, ecological design, material
use, and green technologies both in architectural and
urban scales. Tomas Ghisellini teaches at the univerity
he graduated and offers courses on urban design and
landscape design. His most significant works are:
competition winner New Primary School Complex,
Cenate Sotto, Italy, 2011; the competition winner House
G (Renewal and expansion of a residential building in
the historic center of Ferrara), Italy, 2012; and another
competition winner design Village P Integrated Housing,
Bologna, Italy to be completed in 2015. Their designs
reflect the works of modern Swiss-Italian architects.
Their designs are shaped by urban needs, environmental
conditions, and user needs. The architects gifted in
expressing architectural materials focus on landscape
architecture and open common spaces.
The Secret Garden designed for the competition
announced by Tavazzano con Villavesco Municipality,
as an extension to the existing historic cemetery in
the town. The projects won the first prize in April 2008
and completed in May 2012. The design actively builds
the atmosphere of a park-cemetery, where all the
individualistic exaggerations, typically connected to
traditional Latin models, are replaced by a widespread,
gentle, someway “domestic” monumentality. Tavazzano
con Villavesco located about 35km southeast of Milan
has a population of five thousand. The existing historic
cemetery is located in the northern part of the city
center, among agricultural fields.
The travertine stone used in numerous Mediterranean
cities for ages now is experienced newly in this parkcemetery. Together with their rational approach
towards landscape and urban design, the architects
also considered the future needs of the cemetery
and its energy consumption. The extension project of
Tavazzano con Villavesco Municipality Cemetery consists
of a long, linear three units (Columbaria burials), five
individual family chapels with roof windows open to the
east and a semi open prayer hall in an almost square
lot. The roof structures of the Columbaria burials and
KASIM - ARALIK 2013 / NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2013 • NATURA 95