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Bienal Internacional de Arquitectura

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Talks

261141 Izarrak alde. The Cemetery of Ametzagaina, Jorge Oteiza, Juan Daniel Fullaondo

Session led by Ana Arnaiz. Presented and moderated by Emilio Varela, architect, writer, and member of Ahiku. (Spanish)
In 1985, Jorge Oteiza and Juan Daniel Fullaondo, along with young collaborators Marta Maiz, Enrique Herrada, and María Jesús Muñoz, developed a proposal for a new cemetery on Ametzagaina Hill in Donostia. Due to various technical issues, the project was never accepted, yet it stands as a powerful example of monumental and symbolic construction. Conceived in a Suprematist manner, the design featured a massive rectangular prism suspended over the hill, such that “the ridge of the hill would become a launch runway toward the open sky above the sea, between two airport-like markers,” as Oteiza described in the project’s report. The design aimed to transform the notions of cemetery and death into concepts of return or reunion with the “great receptive void” of the sky: “Dominating the hill and opening toward the southern slope, the summit is presided over by the great ramp: upon it, the great void before the wall, absence, departure, meditation.”

 

 



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