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REFORMING A CULTURAL CONSTRUCT Nestled in the scenic locale of Coimbatore, the Crematorium by Chennai-based Mancini Enterprises Pvt Ltd is a crafted, befitting rejoinder to the need for a precedent in funerary architecture that is responsive to its function. Text: Chandrima Padmanabhan Images & Drawing: courtesy Mancini Enterprises Pvt Ltd
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here exists a multilayered historic parable and philosophy behind the culture of cremation and death in India. Given that Hinduism has essential rituals for honouring the deceased through the narrative epitomised in the process of cremating, one would idealistically expect the funerary architecture of the place to be perceptible as a distinctive landscape in the urban realm. Crematory spaces, however, have long since become an apathetic blind spot in the urban sprawl, an unimportant element in the city dwellers' consciousness, although an integral part of their culture. With very little occupiable land available in cities, cremations usually take place in small open grounds in the fringes of the city or in buildings with electric furnaces, making very little of the procession of rites that accompanies a death in the family. The lack of space for these ceremonies makes cremations today mainly repositories for the deceased rather than spaces for the living to gather, grieve and pay their respects to them. Prudently negotiating a typology that requires a careful positioning on the fine line between being respectful of the Indian Architect & Builder - May 2014
privacy craved by the immediate family and being comfortable to the larger gathering, the Crematorium in Coimbatore, designed by Chennai-based Mancini Enterprises Pvt Ltd is a poetic and ritualistic synthesis of landscape and architecture. Structured to accommodate a pavilion on both flanks, the eastern pavilion is closed off from the surrounding buildings, while the western pavilion, though physically cut off by thick shrubbery, visually opens out completely onto the landscape beyond. Inside, the Crematorium manages to immediately immerse one in the elemental character of its spaces. The austere planes of concrete, though heavy elements, seem light and liberated by virtue of the multi-jointed form of the columns and the ample light and wind that flows through them. The large rectangular pavilions, through which one enters the space from the paved walkway outside, are designed to comfortably house a communal assemblage or gathering of relatives and family for the pre-cremation rites. The deceased is placed on the concrete pedestal in the centre of the room, which is oriented north to south, in keeping with custom. The fence-like wall encompassing the pavilions is strongly