A new columbarium designed by the architectural practice Bakyta Architekti & Fertyk Architekti has been built at the cemetery in the Hostivař district of Prague. The building casts a completely different light on the architecture of a burial site. The designers have created an austere concrete composition featuring an urn meadow, a space for contemplation and prayer, and paths that follow the former layout of the walkways.
The columbarium in Prague’s Hostivař
The main part of the project is the columbarium, a cemetery building serving as a collective tomb, intended solely for the storage of the ashes of the deceased. Here, it takes the form of a simple, orthogonal layout. Four massive walls of monolithic concrete mark the boundaries of the plot, enveloping the meadow designated for burial. All surfaces inside the structure have been sandblasted, giving the raw material a softer, more pleasant, almost matt texture. The architects deliberately limited the number of expressive elements. Concrete, greenery and light were sufficient to create an atmosphere of tranquillity, shielding visitors from urban noise and other random stimuli.
The meadow itself takes the form of a subtly modelled depression in the ground. Its cross-section evokes the archetypal image of a grave, yet without the literalism familiar from traditional cemeteries. This part of the necropolis can accommodate around 960 people, and the burial site is designed to be renewable. A solitary plum tree, growing freely in the middle of the meadow, towers over the whole. The tree has been left as a natural feature, open to many religious and secular interpretations.
Urns and the meadow of contemplation
Cylindrical urns made of duralumin have been placed within the walls of the columbarium. Their shape has been adapted to the holes drilled in the concrete. Each urn has a sealed lid with an identification plaque featuring a uniform graphic design. In total, the walls accommodate 1,050 urns. The repetitive rhythm of the circular niches lends the concrete surfaces a somewhat abstract character, which changes with the angle of the light.
A wide walkway with a concrete plinth for candles runs along the entire perimeter of the walls. This simple detail helps to create an intimate ritual of remembrance. The architects have placed the entrances to the columbarium where a dirt path once crossed the cemetery grounds. The old route, worn and trodden by thousands of feet, has not disappeared following the completion of the project. You can still take this shortcut to the bus stop, walk your dog, or pause for a moment’s reflection. This allows the cemetery to function both as a space of everyday urban life and a place of contemplation, without ostentatious gestures or superfluous architectural forms.
design: Bakyta Architekti & Fertyk Architekti
team: Arch. Róbert Bakyta, Arch. Ivan Boroš, Arch. Matúš Grega Jakub, Arch. Peter Janeček, Arch. Stanislav Krčmárik, Ľubica Lašáková, Arch. Lukáš Radošovský
construction: 2023–2025
photographs: Matej Hakár
See also: Flower meadows | Czech Republic|Concrete|Brutalism | Minimalism
