Fraga do Alén

laND30 and Promove

Short description

The Fraga do Alén project was born from the need to expand and transform the Rómea Municipal Cemetery in Lalín, reimagining it as a space where memory and nature intertwine without barriers. Beyond responding to the demand for new burial plots, this intervention redefines the relationship between the cemetery and its surroundings, proposing an open, permeable place where architecture and landscape engage in a dialogue over time.

Until now, the cemetery remained enclosed, bordered by a perimeter wall and dense hedges of conifers that isolated it. The proposal breaks through these physical and visual boundaries, allowing the adjacent forest to flow into the site and transform it into a continuous landscape. Memory is no longer confined—it unfolds along paths, clearings, and contemplative spaces, where nature accompanies grief at its own rhythm.

The project preserves native vegetation and reinforces it with new plantings. Rest areas are created around existing trees, where silence becomes tangible. The original layout is reinterpreted through winding paths that encourage a slower, more reflective walk, aligned with the natural character of the site. This new network connects with the surrounding rural landscape.

The intervention embraces architecture that respects and enhances ecological balance. All pavements are fully permeable, allowing water to filter naturally into the soil and preventing erosion. Solar panels ensure energy self-sufficiency, reducing the project’s environmental impact. Every design decision seeks to integrate the cemetery into the natural cycles of the land, ensuring an organic and progressive transformation over time.

At the heart of the funeral park, a lake-stage becomes more than a landscape feature. Its surface reflects the sky, the trees, and the passage of time, creating a space where poetry, music, and memory resonate in harmony with the environment. Around it, gathering and contemplation areas reinforce the idea of a cemetery that not only honors the past but also celebrates life in all its forms.

The columbarium blocks, designed as prefabricated modules, are scattered among the trees without major earthworks, respecting the site's topography. This layout allows the cemetery and the forest to coexist and gradually merge without one dominating the other.

Access to the site is reimagined through two routes: a main entrance that preserves the solemnity required for ceremonies, and a secondary, organic path through the forest that offers a more personal, immersive experience—where remembrance blends with the breeze and the shifting light. Along this route, a sculpture commemorates the victims of gender-based violence—an act of memory and justice that strengthens the project’s symbolic and inclusive character.

The chapel, the symbolic heart of the cemetery, is clad in weathering steel, a material that ages with dignity. Its oxidized patina speaks of the transformation of matter and the passing of time.

Fraga do Alén is more than an expanded cemetery—it is a forward-looking model. A project that transforms funerary architecture into a space for life, where memory and nature embrace within a landscape open to time.