Uma Homenagem à Memória: Projecto de um Tanatório para Coimbra

Abstract

Starting at the beginning. Interest in cremation has been increasing from year to year, not only because of overcrowded cemeteries, but also because of the public's willingness to be more openminded about it. Clearly before the year 2000, the demand for such a project was considered non-existent in the city of Coimbra, in which the Church opposed the idea of cremation and the construction of this type of equipment. In fact, there was the intention of placing a crematorium next to the Conchada Municipal Cemetery, at a time when talk was already beginning about this funerary method. Starting from the concept "you are dust and to dust you will return", where earth is a primary element, the concept is to use this raw material in the construction of the building, similar to the natural process of burial. Walls made of adobe brick, with plaster applied to the interior. A Tanatório is funeral equipment of the same typology and shows other services not available in crematoriums. The Tanatório proposal is an example of equipment that could be implemented in Coimbra.