Cemetery chapel with viewing area
Bolligen
The face-to-face encounter with a deceased is a very personal and intimate experience; the funeral ceremony a collective act. A viewing chapel unites both elements under one roof.
In the new Bolligen chapel a bridge leads the visitor from a covered forecourt to the subdued light of the inner area. The deceased lie in state in their freestanding cubicles, lit from above. The encounter with death is always an encounter with emptiness, which should not be aesthetizised or monumentalised. The architecture rather strives towards a distinctive atmosphere, intimate, relocated in time, bright and serene, in which the visitor can encounter his own self, standing in the full light of life, but being isolated from daily routine.
