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The Columbarium Competition asked participants to design a columbarium containing 500 niches for urns in the Forest Cemetrery in Riga, Latvia.

Forest Cemetery is still one of the most artistically expressive burial sites in the world, with 69 protected art monuments of national significance registered by the State Cultural Heritage Board alongside memorial sculptures and monuments of the well-known and celebrated individuals remembered there.

Today, the Forest Cemetery remains one of the largest, most historically significant burial sites in Latvia. It is here where the country’s presidents and freedom fighters, soldiers and scientists, martyrs and cultural icons are laid to rest, including the poet Jānis Pliekšāns
and the first Latvian Foreign Minister, Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics.

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Eternal Sigh attempts to translate the pain of witnessing those we love transition to the great beyond into a pallatable architectural language. 


























 










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Site Grading

The arrival is inspired by the continuity of a person’s final breathing. At any moment, it could stop, and yet it continues.

This sense of suspended continuity is captured with a seamless path of circulation that meanders between and around the sanctuaries, seemingly without an end. The site grades up to the tips of the three sanctuaries, then grades back down to the central daisy garden. This adds a sense of discovery to the site while creating privacy for those visiting their loved ones.

In addition, it creates a visual and sound barrier between the site and the major thoroughfare to the north and provides flexibility for the relocation of trash collection close to the site without disrupting aesthetic sightlines.

Sanctuary

Once a visitor makes it down the path, they enter the sanctuary. The meandering site path is mimicked within the structure, reinforcing the sense of suspended continuity. This concept is further enhanced by the mechanical diaphragm, continuously contracting, as if the visitor’s loved one is peacefully present.














Columbarium Niches

The niches are placed at the tips of the sanctuaries to maximize the tallest part of the structure. The form of the niches morphs into seating at the two side wings, allowing visitors to linger after lighting a votive candle.

 











 

 











 

 











 















Counter to a meditative space, when the Cheyne’s Stokes pattern was applied to the strings, the movement was rather upsetting. The depth of the breathes increasing was not the problem (amplitude), rather, the same time (frequency) applied  to each breathe increased the velocity of each consecutive string. Too uncanny.
To amend this discomfort, each increase in amplitude includes a massive increase in frequency, to the point where the deepest breathe stretches on for moments.
This simple adjustment translates a traditionally unnerving pattern into one that creates a deeply meditative space for those in mourning.

 











 

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