Private Cemetery, Nanjing
Private Cemetery, Nanjing
Lekker Architects
LOCATION
Nanjing, China
TYPE
Landscape + Planning › Private Garden
This project is a private cemetery and public park situated in a heritage landscape outside the urban centre of Nanjing.
The land has been owned by several generations of a single family, who are now located across Asia—in Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and elsewhere.
By tradition, members of the family return to this site to be buried.
Our task was to reimagine the grounds as a public garden, carefully balancing its private and public aspects, as well as past and future uses.
The new landscape includes lawns, a small lake, and a remediated pine forest.
In this setting, a new path system was to be added, as well as seating and a collection of small architectural pavilions.
These tiny structures are not programmed.
Rather, they provide points to appreciate the natural and historical features of the site, and to contemplate the cemetery as a space of memory and reflection.
These also respond to their unique placement: floating on a lake, standing among the pines, or partially hidden within a grove of Cypress trees.
