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Death duty: this new cemetery sensitively reinterprets the necropolis for the modern age.


Commended in the AR Awards of 2003 for their extension to a Ligurian cemetery (AR December 2003), Aldo Amoretti and Marco Calvi impressed the jury with another project for a contemporary necropolis necropolis: see cemetery.
necropolis

(Greek: “city of the dead”) Extensive and elaborate burial place serving an ancient city. The locations of these cemeteries varied.
. This extension to the small municipal cemetery of Santo Stefano al Mare Santo Stefano al Mare is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Imperia in the Italian region Liguria, located about 100 km southwest of Genoa and about 9 km southwest of Imperia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,260 and an area of 2.7 km².  on the south-western tip of Liguria is more modest in scale and budget ([euro]250 euros per sqm), the challenge being to provide dignified, affordable burial plots.

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The roughly crescent-shaped site runs along the southeastern edge of the existing cemetery overlooking the town's seafront. A proposed cycleway and promenade are currently under construction between the terraced plateau of the cemetery and the sea, so in some ways, the necropolis becomes part of the urban fabric. To make the most of limited space, physical remains are housed in pristine, prismatic pris·mat·ic   also pris·mat·i·cal
adj.
1. Of, relating to, resembling, or being a prism.

2. Formed by refraction of light through a prism. Used of a spectrum of light.

3. Brilliantly colored; iridescent.
 blocks, each with space for three or four bodies stacked horizontally in separate tomb chambers. The short faces of the blocks are faced with palely veined white marble, which adds a suitably honorific hon·or·if·ic  
adj.
Conferring or showing respect or honor.

n.
A title, phrase, or grammatical form conveying respect, used especially when addressing a social superior.
 touch, but their less prominent long sides are left as raw concrete.

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In keeping with Catholic tradition, in which the dead tend to be moved around at regular intervals, individual remains are left in the tombs for a 40 year period and then eventually transferred to a communal repository.

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The powerful, sculptural austerity Austerity
See also Asceticism, Discipline.

Amish

conservative Christian group in North America noted for its simple, orderly life and nonconformist dress. [Am. Hist.
 of the blocks provides an antidote antidote

Remedy to counteract the effects of a poison or toxin. Administered by mouth, intravenously, or sometimes on the skin, it may work by directly neutralizing the poison; causing an opposite effect in the body; binding to the poison to prevent its absorption,
 to the more hectic excesses of Catholic cemeteries, and the jury also admired the project's sensitivity in reinterpreting the necropolis for the modern age. C. S.
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Author:Slessor, Catherine
Publication:The Architectural Review
Date:Dec 1, 2006
Words:259
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