CAFUBE Funeral Home

CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer

CAFUBE FUNERAL HOME

LOKOMOTIV.archs office

CLIENTS
CAFUBE SA, Luca Andretta, Dante Pesciallo

COLLABORATORS
Styl-Comp Group

CATEGORY
Crematorium

LOCATION
Bellinzona, Switzerland

AREA
1100 m²

YEAR
2016

ELECTRICIAN
Elettronova Sagl

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Juan M. Campopiano, Alberto Julio Fresco

MANUFACTURERS
Styl Comp, Edil Bi Suisse, Elettronova, Lotti impianti

FAÇADE EXECUTION
Styl-Comp Group

ENGINEERING
Belletti & Molinaro SA

PLASTERER & DETAILS
Edil Bi Suisse SA

PLASTERER & DETAILS
Edil Bi Suisse SA

COLLABORATORS
C. A. Faoro, A. Viganò

Text description provided by architect.

In the search for the intrinsic beauty of the architectural object, connubial of pure and functional, the containing silence, the ephemeral that comes to life, the pain and calm that embrace this building in one, highlight the contrast with an architecture monumental whose massive character, heaviness, austerity, balance, and functional coherence are the masters.

CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer
CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer
CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer
CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer

The joint and certainty that guides the whirlwind of ideas that enveloped this project was its functional coherence, which is accompanied by the complicit and creative light of a new balance.

The object rests on the ground, aspiring to the sky, in a combination of a heavy load-bearing internal skeleton wrapped externally by a candid origami of slabs with light and suspended appearance.

CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer
CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer

This diaphanous and clean skin, chiseled in a linear and rhythmic way by triangulations and pure geometric shapes, comes to life and interrogates the observer through the light, which creeps into the slits and creates shadows that change over time.

The building thus becomes a sundial of a time that is not real and tangible, but that refers to the times of man and life, of the experiences that follow one another in a day and that are reborn at sunrise.

The monumentality and austerity of this architectural typology are also reflected in the distribution of the internal environments, vertical distribution through a stairwell and lift, and in the articulation of these environments that respect the natural turn of the deceased's body's preparation practice.

CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer
CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer
CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer

The attention of the designer shifts and focuses on the discretion and complete dissimulation of the interventions and mechanisms that exist hidden from the visitor's sight.

Thus, two distinct design lines are configured that parallel public atmosphere, of recollection and ceremony, with technical spaces linked to the profession.

The visitor's welcome consists of a reception whose candid color is a direct reflection of the envelope, and whose choice of materials is dictated by the desire to create a tension-free passage from outside to inside.

CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer
CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer

The main rooms that interest the visitor and on which the designers' gaze has lingered for a long time are made up of three small rooms on the second floor which overlook the main hall on the ground floor.

The three rooms are suitable to welcome the deceased in an immediate, intimate, and collected way. The light that permeates the envelope outside permeates the glass surface of the skylights and delicately blends with the internal atmosphere.

CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Simone Bossi photographer
CAFUBE Funeral Home
© Giorgio Marafioti Photography

This same zenithal light is found in the main farewell room, whose peculiarity lies in the wide breadth allowed by the opening on a double-height.


CAFUBE Funeral Home
Site plan
CAFUBE Funeral Home
Floor plans / elevations