Taiwan Chia Ching Mausoleum, designed by architects Alvaro Siza and Carlos Castanheira, is located in New Taipei City, Taiwan, China. The overall solemnness of the building looks like a huge "suspended object", with blurred boundaries and fluid inside and outside Spaces. Visitors enter the interior through a gentle ramp, where there is a weakened sense of direction.
Its designer Carlos Castanheira describes the building as follows: “We climb a gentle path to get there. We are absorbed by silence as we contemplate this endless and ethereal space. Again, here function determines the space. Open and endless. At the center, the family gathers around the memory of their loved ones. The space is formed by a ceiling that hangs from columns on which a low dome sits, asserting hierarchy and tradition. Timeless, in the contemporary reading of a place of respect, memory and gratitude. The massiveness of the exposed concrete and the stone create space and function and open these to the landscape and to infinity. Silence tells stories and evokes Life as it advances through the finiteness of time and space. Everything else is intimacy.”
- Architect: Alvaro Siza Carlos Castanheira
- Photos: Fernando Guerra
- Words: Valerie