Japan. David Chipperfield completes a contemplative building in red

David Chipperfield Architects completes the chapel and visitor centre for Inagawa Cemetery in the Hokusetsu Mountain Range of Hyogo prefecture. The new building is conceived as an aggregation of contemplative spaces under a single sloping roof, which composition is defined by the terraced site.

The cemetery sits on a steep site, looking upwards to the shrine: the monumental flight of steps constitutes the axis that connects the two. This geomerty determines the arrangement of the rooms of the new building, which are distributed all around the central courtyard. The result is connoted by a sense of abstraction enhanced by the choice of the materials. The monolithic appearance of the volumes is the result of the combination of poured earth-like red concrete and the sharpness of the details.