Category: Crypts & Mausoleums | ArchDaily

Family Tomb in Coimbra / Comoco Arquitectos

Susanna Moreira — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Buildings associated with death, conceived or inspired by funerary rituals and practices, have given rise throughout history to some of architecture's most significant achievements. The desire to preserve memory has always inspired the design of funerary spaces that explore territories of ambiguity: between earth and sky; light and matter; the telluric and the ethereal; the present and the timeless. In their materials, textures, scales, and forms, these buildings resist the passage of time and assert themselves as timeless constructions.

Thomas Sankara Mausoleum / Kere Architecture

Hadir Al Koshta — Tue, 20 May 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, has inaugurated a mausoleum commemorating a pan-Africanist revolutionary and the former president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, along with twelve of his aides. Sankara was president of Burkina Faso from 1983 until his assassination at the age of 37 during a coup on October 15, 1987, when twelve officials were also killed. Under his leadership, Sankara championed women's rights, launched environmental campaigns, pursued economic independence, and left an enduring legacy of national reforms. The Thomas Sankara Mausoleum is the final resting place of the former president and his twelve closest companions. Inspired by the path of the sun, the thirteen tombs are arranged concentrically from the centre of the building, each underneath a single skylight. At each hour, a new tomb is lit by the sun overhead, moving the visitor across the room and into a new space of remembrance. Thirteen columns create thirteen open spaces that physically represent the absence of those who were killed — a poignant reminder of the gap created in the lives of their families. Outside, a winding and colorful pavilion directs visitors from Boulevard Thomas Sankara to the entrance of the building.

Shafagh Tomb / 35-51 ARCHITECTURE Office

Pilar Caballero — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 02:00:00 +0000

Respect for the dead has always held a special place in Iranian culture. This respect has manifested itself in the construction of tombs, mausoleums, and crypts in such a way that there is almost no region, city, or village where such structures have not been built. This attention to the deceased has preserved the tradition of building tombs with a history of nearly 1,000 years. This tradition has undergone various formal and stylistic transformations over its centuries-long history.

Family Mausoleum, Municipal Cemetery / Fransmas architects

Clara Ott — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 03:00:00 +0000

The circle is a reference to divinity, humanity, and science. A symbol that brings the image of perfection to our mind.

Mausoleum for Two / Cristian Yazigi

Valeria Silva — Sat, 18 May 2024 15:00:00 +0000

A marriage that celebrates 59 years of being together commissioned their mausoleum. He is 82 years old, and she is 80. The site is located in Santiago's General Cemetery, specifically in Patio No. 61, in a 3.75m x 3.20m plot, with an area of 12 m2.

Dignity Memorial Mausoleum / Grass+Batz Arquitectos

Pilar Caballero — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:00:00 +0000

Memorial Dignity Mausoleum is an initiative of the People of the Street Foundation. Its objective is to provide funerary units and a space of remembrance for the people who died living on the streets of Santiago de Chile, the first of its kind in Latin America.

Shah Muhammad Mohshin Khan Mausoleum / Sthapotik

Hana Abdel — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Background - Sufism is one most amazing, thought-provoking aspects of Islam. Sufism is derived from a more philosophical and social standpoint focusing on closeness to Allah (Schimmel, A., 1975). The Sufi saints were involved in the spread of Islam in Bengal through their religious and missionary zeal, exemplary character, and humanitarian activities. They even involve in regional politics as advisors to the ruler and influence them to do humanitarian work. The Uwaisi is a Tariqa (pathway) of Sufism that spiritually transmitted the vocabulary of Islamic mysticism, named after Owais al-Qarani. The project is a Dargah for the ‘Pir’ of Uwaisi Tariqa. Though the word “Pir” is a Persian word, it was locally adapted due to the role of the Persian saints in spreading Islam in this region. Existing graves were originally buried inside the residence of the “Pir”. Later on, the ancestors of the ‘Pir’ decided to build a unique (mausoleum) structure over the graves regarding Pir’s memory and contributions.

Pessoal House / COM/O atelier

Andreas Luco — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:00:00 +0000

Located in Alto de São João cemetery in Lisbon, CASA DO PESSOAL has housed for several decades the crematorium workers’ changing rooms and a workshop for maintaining small elements of the cemetery. The existing building was in a terrible state of conservation and the spaces did not have the best conditions for their users. It was interesting for us to understand how to design a building to serve the daily life of living human beings that work and deal every day with death. Inspired by both spaces’ atmosphere and overlooking the river Tagus, this new space provides an escape for the cemetery workers' hard work daily life and death environment. It is a building for life within death.

Gallery of the Saints Mausoleum Extension / BENT Architecture

Hana Abdel — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 22:00:00 +0000

The Gallery of the Saints Mausoleum Extension forms a site-specific, engaging and respectful memorial structure where space, culture and belief are formative in the experience of emotional healing. The design approach draws on the experiences of the preceding Mausoleum stages at Keilor whilst offering an innovative, first-principles interpretation of site and program in order to create a purposeful, contemporary Mausoleum of the highest quality, which has been embraced by the local community and vitally linked to its natural surrounds.

Mausoleum of Martyrdom of Polish Villages / Nizio Design International

Paula Pintos — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Viewed from the outside, from its northern and southern elevations, the building of the Mausoleum of Martyrdom of Polish Villages in Michniów brings to mind wooden country cottages arranged one behind the other. This row of symbolic huts has a disturbing form. Individual segments are crashed together and become disintegrated, as after a cataclysm, an earthquake or a fire.

Werribee Mausoleum Extension / BENT Architecture

Andreas Luco — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 19:00:00 +0000

This recent expansion of the Werribee Mausoleum creates 170 new resting places for deceased loved-ones in the Werribee cemetery. The project comprises two distinct structures; a new garden Mausoleum to the east of the original building, containing 140 outward-facing crypts (doubling the original capacity); and a series of Family Mausolea to the west of the original building, comprising four intimate family rooms and chapels which accommodate five or ten resting places each. The new additions flank the original structure designed by BAU and expanded on the symbolism and monumentality of the original design. The dramatic Corbusian pre-cast roof form is extended over the new additions, but a space is reserved between new and existing at ground level; a punctuation mark.

Mausoleum of the Martyrdom of Polish Villages / Nizio Design International

Cristian Aguilar — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 22:00:00 +0000

The building site of the Mausoleum of the Martyrdom of Polish Villages in Michniów is undergoing the successive fifth stage of construction works. The Mausoleum's design envisaged a monolithic sculptural architectural form to give room to a multimedia exhibition which through its shape is to convey the dramaturgy of the historical developments symbolised by Michniów itself. The Mausoleum, designed by the renowned Warsaw-based studio Nizio Design International, is scheduled to be opened in 2016/2017.

Atrium of Holy Angels Mausoleum / Harmer Architecture

Andreas Luco — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 02:00:00 +0000

The Atrium of Holy Angels Mausoleum is located in one of Melbourne’s major urban cemeteries, Fawkner Memorial Park in Sydney Road Fawkner, which is managed by the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust. The Trust commissioned Harmer Architecture to design the mausoleum as a fourth stage to the nearby Holy Angels Mausoleum complex also designed by Harmer Architecture. The mausoleum provides above ground burial for 672 people within in situ concrete crypts which are arranged on top of each other on 6 levels and in eight separate blocks located around a central landscaped courtyard.

Chia Ching Mausoleum / Álvaro Siza Vieira + Carlos Castanheira

Daniel Tapia — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

SILENCE

Pantheon for an Engineer / Martinez Vidal

Cristian Aguilar — Thu, 08 May 2014 01:00:00 +0000

A trompe-l'œil (French for «deceive the eye») is by definition a technique which tries to deceive the eye by means of the architectural surrounding environment, the perspective, the shading, and other optical illusions, creating an “intensified reality” or a “substitution of the reality”.

Botta Cripta / Gianluca Gelmini

Cristian Aguilar — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Panteón Familiar / Ecoproyecta

Daniel Sánchez — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A family vault must save and preserve memory, but it should also be an intimate gathering place to go and remind the family members. The project of this vault arises from this starting point of view, from the design of a courtyard that is protected from the outside but open to the sky to maintain relationship with vegetation of the site, natural light and fresh air.

Heritage Park of Qin Er Shi Mausoleum / Lacime Architectural Design

Javier Gaete — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Considering the present geographical environment of Qin Er Shi Mausoleum, Architects maintain the original sacrifice axis of the Mausoleum and additionally they explore a new display route.

AD Classics: Igualada Cemetery / Enric Miralles + Estudio Carme Pinos

Eduardo Souza — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Completed in 1994, the Igualada Cemetery was designed by Enric Miralles and Carme Pinos to be a place of reflection and memories. After 10 years of construction, their envision of a new type of cemetery was completed and began to consider those that were laid to rest, as well as the families that still remained.

The Igualada Cemetery is understood by the architects to be a “city of the dead” where the dead and the living are brought closer together in spirit. As much as the project is a place for those to be laid to rest, it is a place for those to come and reflect in the solitude and serenity of the Catalonian landscape of Barcelona, Spain. More on the project after the break.

Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum / HGA Architects and Engineers

Igor Fracalossi — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Since its founding in 1871, Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis has served as the foremost resting place for Minnesota’s distinguished citizens. Familiar names like Humphrey, Wellstone, Pillsbury, and Walker are found here, among a long list of local pioneers, heroes, civic leaders, industrialists and art patrons. The private, non- sectarian cemetery is laid over 250 acres of rolling landscape adjoining the city’s historic Grand Round’s parkway system. Lakewood Cemetery’s historical importance and impeccably manicured grounds make it a treasured landmark and community asset in the City’s Uptown neighborhood.

AD Classics: Colònia Güell / Antoni Gaudí

Ramzi Naja — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Colònia Güell was a workers’ colony located in Santa Coloma de Cervelló, presently a town of around 7,000 inhabitants 20km outside Barcelona. The area was a manufacturing suburb that grew rapidly around the turn of the 20^th century. In 1898, Antoni Gaudi was commissioned by Count Eusebi de Güell, who wanted to provide a place of worship for the booming suburb, to build a Church. It was never actually completed because the money ran out as a result of economic hardships. When work stopped in 1915, only the crypt was completed, though it is nevertheless listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site. In 2002, a restoration was carried out by architect Antonio González Moreno who was widely criticized for allegedly mistreating Gaudi’s work.

Enfield Mausoleum Extension / Greenway Architects

Victoria King — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

AD Classics: Mazar-e-Quaid (National Mausoleum) / Yahya Merchant

John Rizor — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Otherwise known as the National Mausoleum, the Mazar-e-Quaid is the tomb of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Sited in the center of Karachi, Pakistan on a natural plateau, this marble structure was designed by the Indian architect Yahya Merchant and was completed in 1970.

Pantheon Nube / Clavel Arquitectos

Megan Jett — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This project involves two images, the first being the medieval unfold-able boards, which worked as removable façades or altarpieces, and are now remade into the zigzagged façade. Death inspires human beings with something between mystery and fear. To die means a transition from this world to an area that no one knows.