A Última Cidade

Abstract

I want, when I die, to be buriedClose to the naïve and meek Ocean,Shall it pray at midnight on a hurt voiceThe final prayers of my rest ...1Architecture for the absence. An eternal farewell, bounded by several memories. Houses ofthe ethereal, with spaces for the faithful departed and for the living. Connection between realityand alienation, transcendence. Paths of meditation and recollection, filled with symbolism anddevotion, inducing us relentlessly toward the imposed celestial ending: the confrontation withdeath.The relationship between man and the cessation of life is the sum expression of funeraryarchitecture. A drawing inspired by death, its rituals and secrets, understood and conceived as anintimate space capable of soothing the healing process of a sore soul, by perpetuating memoriesthat will build the city itself. Currently, we witness the desecration of our culture, mirrored inthe process of funerary architecture. The attempt to hide the impending explosion of pain andsuffering due to the remembrance of a sudden loss tries to convert these spaces into neutrallocations, minimizing the emotional shock - a comprehensive rejection of that painful process.As if death itself would disappear by this procedure of building spaces that reveal the effort toalienate the consciousness when facing death; the attempt to distance the impact felt by thisconfrontation. Architecture blurs death by distracting the living from the harsh reality of passingaway. It smooths the difficulty related to the ceremonial rituals that preceed the exumation.2In short, it is all about an emotional geometry. Modern men wished to omit the presence ofdeath in their daily lives, understanding it as a transgression and allying it to oblivion. Nowadayswe witness the growing emergence of new mortuary complexes that present themselves as aresponse to this ultimatum. We found them in a rather quiet position towards the inaccessibleextremism of purging death away from our daily lives: they define aseptic and precise lines,recurring to the accuracy of statements regarding the function. However, they are endowedwith great symbolic expression; by dignifying the space of significance without abandoning theomnipresence of death nor admitting it across its stern expression. A balanced equilibrium allows51 ESPANCA, Florbela. A minha morte in Poesia Completa de Florbela Espanca, Lisboa: Dom Quixote, 2002, p.55. (free translation)2 MASSAD, Fredy; YESTER, Alicia Guerrero. Cemitérios contemporâneos. Entre a vida e a morte. Revista on-line Vitruvius- Arquitextos, índice 060.02. Maio, 2005.(free translation)A ÚLTIMA CIDADE67us to live with this, enabling us to quietly visit those spaces, hoping that its neutral developmentcontributes to the construction of our own memories.In the end, death contributes to this subject with a double faceted presence, a paradox thatcomes down to the survivors by providing a dualistic reading: the hostility of death is exercisednot against the deceased, to whom a better luck is given, but against those who mourn; notannihilating them, but letting them live, social decapitated body, beings deprived of support anddirection. This ambivalence reflects a deep spiritual division, between two chronologically distinctyet discreet attitudes: on one hand, the initial shock of mourning, during which death can only bestepmother. On the other, it appears as a retreat imposing religious reflection, inducing ourselvesto extract a positive aspect - albeit limited to a single recipient - of a situation and comparing(within the limits and under certain strict conditions) death to a caring mother.33 BRAET, Herman; VERBEKE, Werner. A Morte na Idade Média. São Paulo: EDUSP, 1996, p.254. (free translation)