Dates:
Design: 1998, delivery: 2001
Photographs:
Christian Richters, Peter Luyendijk
Other publications:
Architectural Review nov. 2001
L'Architecture d'aujourd'hui nov.-dec. 2001
De Architect jul.-aug. 2001
Bouw nr. 11 nov. 2001
Dutch yearbook of architecture 2002
The catholic cemetery of St. Lawrence in Rotterdam dates
from de
mid nineteenth century. It
was designed as a
campo santo, an Italian field for the dead; the cemetery is
focused around a central chapel, surrounded by radiating
paths. The cemetery chapel stands on a site of an old neo
gothic church dating from 1869.
Owing to the poor sub
ground on
which it
was build, the original chapel
gradually tilted over until danger of collapsing. In 1963
the chapel
was replaced with a new tepee-like structure
on the existing under croft, covered in copper. This too
became unstable and now, the third chapel on this site
was designed with new foundations.
The routing through the chapel evinces confidence in the
continuity of life. You carry the deceased into the chapel,
pause a while for reflection in a quit, contemplative space
and then exit the chapel, all in one, smooth movement.
The space is organic in form, shaped by an unbroken,
sinuous
wall, raised seventy centimetres above the
ground. The intense blue inner surface of this wall bears
passages from the Requiem in
many languages, a
reflection of the
multicultural Rotterdam community
served by this Catholic cemetery.
Above the space the roof floats like a curved sheet of
paper. The golden ceiling is
washed from below by
artificial light
while an opening in the ceiling admits a
shaft of daylight. The chapel stands on a plateau of gravel
within the contours of its neo-gothic predecessor. Two
inlaid stone floors indicate the respective positions of the
priest and the mourners.
Because of the former problems with the foundations, the
choice was made not to fill the contours with sand and
then start building the chapel but to leave the old cellar
area open. This means the piles reach until 3m above base
level and have also a stability function. Therefore steel
piles were used.
Above the piles a grid of steel beams support the
reinforced concrete floor.
Finally this solution was too expensive and replaced by a
sand filled contour, and a concrete floor on steel piles only
under the chapel area.
The chapel is made of a steel structure consisting of round
columns (o114mm), supporting the steel beams (IPE400) of
the roof. To reduce the thickness of the roof on the edge
IPE120 profiles are used. Because of the light zones above
the floor and below the ceiling, and because of the curved
walls, a cross bracing
was not possible to stabilize the
chapel.
Therefore a framework
was
made
of the columns
together with the two curved UNP200 profiles.
The whole construction is designed with EPW.
The contours of the concrete floor and the façade are
imported from an Auto Cad drawing of the architect. For
tendering some construction drawings
were
made by
printing the renderings en floor plans on scale.
All the necessary calculations are done with EPW:
Pile reactions
Forces
and
displacements
of the concrete floor
(reinforcement is calculated with ABT-software)
Forces and displacements of the steel construction
Unity checks on the steel beams and columns
Stability calculations due to the wind loads
49
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