Brion-Vega Cemetery ARCH 411: Concepts and Theories of Contemporary Landscape Architecture Emily Seck
Site Description Designer: Carlo Scarpa Landscape Architect: Pietro Porcinai Location: San Vito d'Altivole, Italy Size: 2200 m² (23680 ft²) Date: 1970-1972 Client: Brion Family Materials: Concrete, Metal and Water
Framework • The Use of Text Meaning does not reside in the author but in the people that look at work. Language and meaning are a series of layers constructed by the viewer/reader of the text. This displaces the author as the center of meaning and values the prestige of the individual. Now meaning is generated by the receiver and there is a pressure on transforming the text itself. • The Art of Representation In viewing the work as text, we interpret the work as representation of a series of themes. These themes are seemingly represented in the materiality, articulation and execution of the project.
WORD LIST Addition Arca Balance Bridge Cemetery Change Circle Composition Context Death Detail Displacement Eternity Fertility Framing Garden Iconography Inertia Integrity Intervention Interaction Journey
Life Material/Materiality Memory Orientation Passage Perfume Poetry Representation Sacred Scale Site Sorrow Spatial Organization Spring Surface Symbol Text Threshold Tradition Transition Truth Unification
Addition • The nature of the project as in expansion of an existing cemetery. The L-shaped configuration of this addition made by Scarpa wraps around an existing cemetery.
Arca •
A tomb located on the site, specially dedicated to the Brion couple. An ark/sarcophagus/arch/bridge/ roof/ overturned boat that is Japanese in form, but lacks the delicacy of a Japanese stone bridge. This shows an influence of Japanese architecture on Scarpa’s work.
Balance • A choice of plant type
The exotic Chinese and Japanese (Wisteria, Libocedrus, Acer palmatum, Pittosporum tobira, Phododendron, Nandina), and the indigenous Mediterranean and Italian (Italian cypress, tamarisk, ilex, yew, ivy).
• An interpretation of feature in the design
Not necessarily geometrically symmetrical, though the architectural details are rigorously geometric. Balance between external and internal environment and the representation of male and female.
Bridge • Venetian influence of Scarpa’s work. See tradition. • An interpretation of the arca as a transition to the afterlife. Placed precisely over the tomb of the Brion couple, Bridge here is interpreted as by the reader as a metaphor to the afterlife.
Cemetery •  A place where the dead are buried, remembered and visited. A person visits a cemetery to grasp any remaining memory of what the dead have left behind.
Change •
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The effects of time on a place due to human decisions or natural occurrences.
Over time, weeping conifers that framed the main entry have died. Thus sorrow that was emphasized with the plant growth is now gone, exposing one’s view straight into the main entry’s interlocking rings.
A theme that plants dramatize that the architecture cannot.
A representation that death brings about change. This change is emphasized through the change in colors of the leaves in autumn (Virginia Creeper), and the different colors in Autumn and winter as well as their flowers (Cotoneaster).
Circle •  The movement around the site dictated by the position of cloisters and pathways. Since a person dictates where they want to go, there is no end point. Similarly, the shape of the circle is continuous with no definite end point. This parallels a representation that life continues after death..
Composition • The way different components in the project come together. • The original design intentions made by the architect, and the landscape designer. This has changed over time.
Context • A private cemetery dealing with notion of death.
Death • The context of the project • The way plants are used to give a solemn atmosphere. Located at the entrance for funerary services and the Brion tomb, the Italian cypress help give a somber emphasis.
Detail • Signature of Scarpa’s work. He pays a lot of attention to articulation. The Brion-Vega Cemetery is known as Scarpa’s biggest commission. Built for a rich family, large elaborate monumental tombs were the norm. However, Scarpa chose to represent the notion of death in a non ostentatious way, and this was done so through his detailing. Luxury, mourning memory and excess, Scarpa emphasizes such themes with material textures, the handling of construction material in a refined manner.
Displacement •  A kind of detail that Scarpa uses, especially in his treatment to concrete. One way this is shown is through the simple, stepped slabs of concrete. Seen throughout the project, they give the work great meaning. It can be seen as a representation of being displaced to another world of the afterlife as the edges of the slabs are progressively shifted from their original positions.
Eternity • The length of time the memory will hold. A person’s existence on earth is perceived as something temporal. However, what they leave behind is able to last for eternity. This is represented in the reflection the buildings make on the pool. Using the element of time, for as long there’s an object of memory, there would always be a reflection.
Fertility •  The reproductive nature of plants that embellished this project Fruit-bearing plants. Food supply for birds in the autumn and wither, as well as bee-attracting in the spring. E.g. Cotoneaster. There is a suggestion of activity amidst death, and that out of death comes new life and productivity.
Framing • An intentional clipping of one’s view to give parts of the project emphasis.
Garden •  An area on the site meant for quiet contemplation. With help of plants, they aid in setting the atmosphere. A garden is an ideal place to take a person away from the distractions of everyday life. Such a setting that is conducive for reflection, isolation, as well as dream, remembrance and mourning is ideal for this cemetery.
Iconography •  Quality traits that resemble an object even though it may not have a dynamic connection with it. Iconography is the program in which the materiality in this project is aligned to.
Inertia • To remain the same. The solidarity of the concrete would hardly change over time.
• Taking a life on its own without and intervention added to it. The inertia of the plants do not necessarily require human intervention to maintain its growth.
Integrity •  Honesty displayed, especially through the use of the material, concrete, as well as the design intent. The material is rough, unpolished, untainted, and yet maintains the atmosphere of a private commissioned cemetery.
Intervention Decisions made by people over time that change the look of the project. This is most clearly seen in the plants life in this project when people have to deal with replacing plants that have died and attempt something that is different from the original intentions of Scarpa and Porcinai. See change.
Interaction •  The relationship and communication between nature, the built environment and people. The fact that not all paths are paved provokes a response to a participant through the site. An interaction with the dead is an experience you get on the site.
Journey • The way one goes around the site as a representation of journey of the after life.
Life • The opposite of death • Representation in plants: – Theme of Life, Growth, Renewal as a counterbalance to death and sorrow in the choice of plant type. Forsythia and Jasminum nudiflorium with bright yellow flowers that bloom early on bare branches. – Lily pads and water plants occupy the meditation pool.
Material • Material (noun) Concrete, water, metal, plant life and their impact on the site. • Materiality (adj) The material properties Scarpa makes use of to bring emphasis to certain themes. The transparency of water becomes visible because elements beneath the surface draw the eye downward. An individual uses the knowledge gained through the material aspects of the project to perform the conceptual joining of its pieces, to arrive at a multifaceted understanding of the work.
Memory •  A form of recollection and remembrance as something people hold in their minds of a dead loved one. The reflection on the surface of the water is a representation of meaning left behind as memory of the dead. It looks exactly the same, but is only a virtual image of what is there. It is also disturbed with the movement of water, but ultimately it still holds its place.
Orientation • How the project is arranged with respect to the rest of the site. • The cemetery forms an L-shaped configuration around an existing cemetery.
Passage • The work that makes up the route of a journey.
Perfume •  A pleasant fragrance With the use of scented plants. E.g. Libocedrus, the lilac, roses, Pittosporum etc, sense of smell is one that reminds one of life. Its lingering fragrance also simulates with what trails behind after the dead have left the earth.
Poetry •  The juxtaposition of different material components in harmony.
Representation •  To describe, depict, draw attention to be it directly or indirectly. In this project, Scarpa uses different forms of representation - symbol (e.g. see unification) - iconography (e.g. see displacement) These are further interpreted by people and this interpretation is read like text.
Sacred • Plants with sacred associations e.g. Japanese Sacred bamboo; water lilies and lotos. • An attitude to the dead and spiritual
Scale • Comparison of sizes • Scarpa plays with scale-shifts. This is seen in the progressive downsizing of objects.
Site • The place which the project and its objects are set.
Sorrow •  The feeling when someone dies. This is represented in the choice of plant type. Weeping, trailing and cascading plants located in the roof of the chapel, over the entry porch over the Brion tomb, and other places.
Spatial organization • Organizational layout to create a space • The order of spaces and the setting • 3 main parts: – Pool with aedicule – Spring and Brion tomb – Chapel, flanked by family tomb, and priests cemetery.
Spring • The water channels that shows Scarpa’s Venetian influence in the project • The use of water to represent life and death – Long canal that holds nothing but water (death) – Meditation pool with Lilypads (life)
Surface • The texture of material that reveals unexpected properties. – rough concrete, cut in geometric and rectilinear forms – Water’s reflective and transparent material property
Symbol • The meaning of the object of representation acknowledged by tradition and the way people understand the object to be. These symbols come both literally and metaphorically. Literal (e.g.) - interlocking rings representing unification - displaced stepping of concrete in walls and details Metaphorical (e.g.) - passages of circulation to represent one’s life journey - reflection on the pool to represent memory
Text Sometimes what is shown and intended by the designer is further interpreted by the people in the experience of the project. Thus the work of the designer is read like text to the viewer. See the example of the arca and the bridge.
Threshold •  The physical marks of separation. Multiple in one space, they do not dictate that part of a site has stopped, but that one leads to another. This is usually emphasized in the change of materiality.
Tradition • Scarpa’s Venetian influence : Bridge Island Canal Water The way of seeing and using, a way of connecting things in function of the values of light, texture, color, capable of being grasped only by an eye used to observing water, glass, together with stones and bricks exposed to an inclement atmosphere that does allow the material to hide its structure.
Transition Death is seen as a transition from life on earth to the afterlife. The transition through different passages are emphasized through detailing clues (see threshold). Unlike entrances and exits where they are labeled as dead ends, transition spaces act like temporary resting points to the experience of the journey through the site.
Truth •  The fact that what you see is what you get. The play with depth, mass and space that give a clean-cut honesty to the project. This is emphasized with the crisp shadows that are cast.
Unification • Of the male and female, represented in two ways: – In the interlocking loops at the entrance. – In the two sarcophagi of the Brion couple, though they are separate, they are leaning towards each other.
Bibliography • • • • • •
Barthes, Roland, “From Work to Text”, Image-Music-Text, trans. Stephen Heath, 1977, New York, Hill and Wang, p.155-164 Berrizbeitia, Anita, Linda Pollak, Inside Outside, 1999, Gloucester, Mass. p. 45-55 Scarpa, Carlo, Carlo Scarpa : Drawings for the Brion Family Cemetery, 1984, New Haven, Connecticut. Scarpa, Carlo, “Cemetery Brion-Vega”, Global Architecture 50, 1979, Tokyo. Scarpa, Carlo, Carlo Scarpa : The other city: an architectect’s working method as shown by the Brion Cemetery in San Vito d’Altivole, 1989, Berlin Seddon, George, “The Brion Cemetery”, Landscape Australia, May 1991 Issue, p.146-152