Leeds Beckett University
Leeds, Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Studio 4
year: 2014
Tutors: Alex Otiv and Mark Rist
Beckett cemetery witnessed its last funeral in 1990's. After having its desired density was fulfilled, the site became a place of memory - no longer of action - a monument specially to those killed during the second world-war. Yet memory is active and with each year that goes by, the cemetery becomes less and less visited. People are no longer compelled to visit a cemetery where they do not have - or remember to have - any close relatives. The site is now used by dog-walkers and kids as a park - not a negative feature, but surely one that points a recession of the previous program.
Students were faced with a clear program - a center for the friends of the cemetery institution. The space would be divided into three facilities: A private study, a kiosk and a lecture hall - uses that incorporate aspects of both preservation and reinvention of the site - how could a project take a stand on it?
The design decides for the future of the cemetery as a space of leisure, incorporating a space for small concerts and plays within the proposed structure, the kiosk becomes stage through the use of a fly tower, shifting and pivoting shelves. The plan also suggests the insertion of other leisure structures within the site as well. At some point, park and cemetery would find balance. Children enjoy being in a space which used to be scary, remaining users of the cemetery learn to deal with an environment which appears to be ever more playful and less gloomy.
Change is embraced as a process.
photo survey
site survey
study of possible sittings that would incorporate an existing path
