German architecture studio Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten has been commissioned to project a cemetery far from the typical images with which we normally identify this type of space. The Eternal Hill Columbarium stands on top of Xiang Shan Hill overlooking the sea, located in Hsinchu City in northern Taiwan.

It seeks to project a space that helps to bear the pain and loss of loved ones, generating the right space and environment to improve the mood with which to face and remember the past.
Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten chooses to design a building that develops a stack of overlapping inclined walls that give a characteristic aspect to the architecture. The walls allow a light entrance from the sky that warms the environment and helps to face fear, making a space more welcoming. The studio constantly searches for how to create a space where people can feel comfortable despite the situation they are going through.

A reunion and meeting place is created thanks to the one hundred and fifty-nine meters of loggia that establish a connection between the old and new building of the cemetery. The colonnade projects a shaded promenade that houses offering stalls and a corridor that leads to the artificial plateau where the columbarium is located.

Eternal Hill Columbarium by Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten. Photograph by YuChen Chao Photography.
 

Project description by Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten

Funerals and grief are full of emotions. We often face the cemetery, the last place we say farewell to our family and loved ones with fear. What kind of architecture will be able to drive away the fear, bear the emptiness of emotion and memory, and at the same time be a space for us to settle down and recollect the past?

We need a carrier for grief and loss, it does not mean a carrier for what is left behind after we passed, but instead, we need the kind of space that can encourage us to face and wander over our past.

This cemetery needs to carry 70,000 past, which means it needs to contain 70,000 irreparable regrets.

The cemetery, is located on Hsinchu the Wind City, sitting on top the Xiang Shan Hill overlooking the sea and exposed to the brave wind currents that flow across the Taiwan Strait. The design and construction method, of this wind tower, tells stories and memories of the city.


Eternal Hill Columbarium by Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten. Photograph by YuChen Chao Photography.

Its introspective skin provides the building with the perfect protection against the undesired strong gusts of wind while the tilt on the walls introduce soft blows from different directions.

Mourning rituals involve placing incense, candles, and flowers on the “mountainside”, these practices create a wall and a chance for us to be lost in our thoughts.

The wall is an element that constructs distance. In this case, by tilting the walls at a different angle creates a visual of it gradually leaving the griever. These walls create a distance of departure, instead of separation.

The stacking of slanted overlapped walls gives its characteristic look to the main volume that allocates the columbarium program. This stacking constructs a vision of being at the feet of the hillside surrounded by mountains. The walls, slanted and opened to the sky, register the rays of the sun that warm the atmosphere and accompany us to confront fear. The perimeter built-in planters washed by the natural light at the base of these slanted walls creates a path in which to wander around and get transported into pleasant stories.


Eternal Hill Columbarium by Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten. Photograph by YuChen Chao Photography.

One hundred and fifty nine meters of loggia establish a connection between the former cemetery building and the new, creating a place for encounters and gathering for the people that come to grieve. This shaded colonnade shelters the traditional offering stands set during the mourning festivals and as an endless hallway leads people into the man-made plateau on which the columbarium stands.

The Plateau that lifts the main volume houses the transitional program such as the worship spaces and gathering courtyards. This platform is perforated by a series of shaded patios, interconnected by sheets of water that lead the guests into the atrium. These patios cool down the breeze that flows through them into the atrium.


Eternal Hill Columbarium by Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten. Photograph by YuChen Chao Photography.

The Atrium is shaped by the overhang stacking of the four levels that conform the columbarium area. This simple gesture creates the naturally lit perimeter cloister and also opens the space for visually interconnected pathways that circle around the atrium. Crowning it, an in-situ concrete skylight, pulling down the the roof towards the middle of the atrium.

Glances of the midday sun sneak through the oculus and lift the roof structure, illuminate the terraced promenades while gently lay down light and hope in the courtyard.

More information

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Architects
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Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten. Architect.- Yu‐Han Michael Lin.
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Builder
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RC construction.
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Area
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Technical data.- Plot Area: 18550 m².
Footprint.- 3601.18 m².
Gross Built Area.- 7578.89 m².
Total Building Height.- 5 floor above ground.
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Design period.- 2017 – 2018.
Construction period.- 2019 – 2022.
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Location
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No. 999, Lane 300, Xiangcun Rd, Xiangshan District, Hsinchu City, Taiwan.
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Photography
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Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten is a firm founded by Martin Behet, Roland Bondzio, Yu-han Michael Lin.

Martin Behet, born 1965 in Cologne. Carpenter training. Architectural studies TU Braunschweig; ETH Zurich. Chair Per Krusche. Professional stations: GPS Gondesen Piachnow Staack, Braunschweig; Gatermann, Schossig & Partner, Cologne; Kister Scheithauer Gross, Cologne; Manfred Bukowski, Münster. 2000 Founding of the office Behet + Bondzio. 2003 Foundation of the office behet bondzio lin Architekten Münster | Leipzig | Taichung. Since 2017 member of the board of BDA Münster-Münsterland.

Roland Bondzio, born 1966 in Bielefeld. Architectural studies TU Braunschweig; ETSA Barcelona; Architecture Center Vienna. Chair Meinhard von Gerkan. Career: Casa Blanca, Brunswick; Enric Miralles, Barcelona; Walter Gebhardt, Hamburg; Bolles + Wilson, Münster. 2000 Founding of the office Behet + Bondzio. 2003 Foundation of the office behet bondzio lin Architekten Münster | Leipzig | Taichung. Teaching: Research Assistant at the Chair of Design and Constructing, University of Hannover. Teaching assignments at the University of Applied Sciences Zwickau and the Münster School of Architecture. Since 2014 chairman of the design advisory board of the city of Greven. Member of the Förderverein Bundesstiftung Baukultur e.V. Since 2015 member of the board of BDA Münster-Münsterland

Yu-han Michael Lin, born 1967 in Taipei. Studied architecture at Tunghai University, Taizhong, Taiwan; Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, USA. Chair Rafael Moneo. Career: Fei & Chen Partner, Taipei, Taiwan; And8, Hamburg; Bolles + Wilson, Münster. 2003 Foundation of the office behet bondzio lin Architekten Münster | Leipzig | Taichung. Lectureship: Visiting Professor Department of Architecture Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan. Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Architecture NCTU, Hsinchu City, Taiwan. Associate Professor, Department of Architecture Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan
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Published on: June 20, 2023
Cite: "Reinterpretation of a cemetery. Eternal Hill Columbarium by Behet Bondzio Lin Architekten" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/reinterpretation-a-cemetery-eternal-hill-columbarium-behet-bondzio-lin-architekten> ISSN 1139-6415
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