The Last House

Gili, Monica

ISBN 10 : 8425217342 ISBN 13 : 9788425217340

Editeur : Gustavo Gili, 1999

Synopsis

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A propos du livre

Extrait :

The Last House brings together a selection of 60 tombs, little-known, small-scale interventions which demonstrate the wide variety of schemes designed by architects from the beginning of the century until now. Tombs created by some of the masters of 20th-century architecture are shown, plus others by prestigious contemporary architects, as well as by younger architects on the current international scene. Text from the introduction The house and the dead by Pedro Azara. "The tombs of the 19th and 20th centuries employ a formal vocabulary which relates to ancestral tradition. Just as in ancient art, we enter into the kingdom of metaphors. Modern tombs employ bridges which evoke the fatal and final step, the crossing of the abyss, as can be seen in the works of Scarpa. They call on massive, enclosed volumes of classical composition, similar to those of treasure-houses of the ancient Delphic sanctuary whose entrance was hidden from the profane, or as in those configuring the Malmströmvault of Sigurd Leverentz or various Gunnar Asplund's pantheons. Walls and grilles (in Josep Llinàs small vault) enclose a sepulchral emptiness, as in Anderson Wilhemson tomb, or in the pantheon a team of Italian architects (Alesi, Bidetti, Defilippis and Labate) constructed near Bari, as if such tombs were open for families to come and hold a annual wake -as used to happen in ancient Rome-, in the hopes of meeting their dead relatives once again. In other instances, however, the tombstones recall the covers of those modest Romanesque tombs which were mingled with flagstones of the church. See, in that respect, some examples included in this book: the simple and slender Hernaus tomb by Mario Botta, resting on the grass; the headstone Win Cuyvers dedicated to his father or the beautiful tomb of Teodor Bergen Family by Leverentz, resting in the generous and protective shade of an ancient tree on the remote island of Utterö, which recall the venerable, gnarled oak the knights of the Arthurian saga prepared to rest under, for one last time, on the lost island of Thule. Luigi Non's tomb, designed by Arata Isozaki, is a slab planted with ivy which hardly protrudes from the cementery undergrowth. Likewise, Le Corbusier's tomb consists of a simple and discreet horizontal slab placed at the foot of a tall and massive cypress whose trunk, perennially and eternally erect, akin to an undulating and incombustible flame, incarnates the mythical and fecund tree of life which in most cultures symbolizes ladder or pillar uniting the underworld to heaven."

Présentation de l'éditeur :

From Antiquity onwards the tomb as a funerary monument depicts the house of the dead, taken to be our last resting place. The tomb also reflects mankind's beliefs and attitudes when faced with death. Despite living in a period that copes with death by trying to hide it, the architecture of the 20th century has never ceased taking an interest in the issue and has made significant contributions to the language of funerary architecture.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Gustavo Gili
• Date d'édition: 1999
• ISBN 10: 8425217342
• ISBN 13: 9788425217340
• Reliure: Livre broché
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 160