Standing on the site of memory and enduring pietas, funerary architecture embraces many symbolic values that express profound concepts operating within society, explicitly and implicitly. The realization of a funerary chapel for the Mantegazza family from Lugano became a virtual declaration of identity, making the architecture into the cornerstone of a proposal of accumulated memory. The design for this non-conventional funerary architecture took into consideration a set of values and evaluations, convictions and conceptions, inserting fragments of contemporary thought into a place with obvious historical stratification. At the same time, the plan was also determined by the belief that a new equilibrium can be consolidated through choices balanced between the expression of a unique language and the need to respect the surrounding memorials. Defining elements of the project include the open piazza above the crypt, whose space is delineated but not blocked by a series of vertical panels, thus encouraging free movement and contemplation; a central glass podium that gathers the zenith light and projects it onto the altar below, as if bringing the presence of spirit into man’s earthly condition; and finally, a bronze sculpture, Great Mother by Nag Arnoldi, which symbolically welcomes visitors and dignifies the funerary monument with its commanding presence.
Giampiero Camponovo
2015
Lugano
Projects, Sacred Buildings