On Mortuaries as the Ultimate Architectural Places

architects Igor Presečan, Damir Gamulin
project Resnik Mortuary, Zagreb, Croatia
written by Tomislav Pavelić

 

When so ultimately formulated, the title assertion is obviously superfluous. If for nothing else, then because it is quite clear to everyone, to both architectural laity and experts, that mortuaries are extremely specific architectural places. They indeed are, simply because they are literally the uttermost places, those that host a man’s body after the end, that is, at the moment of his transition from bodily existence to immateriality. Or to put it more directly—because mortuaries are the places where the indisputable human end is manifested, because these are the places of residence for the material remains of entities that just a moment before were considered human beings; it is needless to state the obvious and call them the ultimate architectural places.