Emily Grimsey
AFTER creating the winning proposal to revive Begona cemetery LOLA Landscape Architects and IWA Design Studio now have to bring their vision to life.
The design competition which challenged architects to transform Begona cemetery into an urban garden for the community was launched after a mass grave was found last March which contained victims of the Civil War.
The design team sets to utilise the existing heritage and objects found on site and relocate, reuse or rehabilitate tombstones.
A 2,200 square meter central garden and a 3,700 square meter botanical garden will be added.
Both gardens will use gravel and fragments found from the original cemetery and be covered in trees to reduce noise.
The aim for the project is that “100% of the objects that belong to the original cemetery be reused and integrated into the new park.”.
The design team hopes the main entrance can be “conceived as a memorial for the victims found in the mass graves, and the paving’s configuration echoes fragments of the victims’ DNA patterns.”.
The 1.48 cemetery has been closed since 2016 but is set to reopen after the project, which has a budget of €3 million, in 2025.
