Architects:Fransmas architects

Area:20m²

Year:2023

Photographs:Adrià Goula

Lead Architects:Frans Masana Castanys

Engineering & Consulting > Structural:Bernuz-Fernández Arquitectes

City:Terrassa

Country:Spain

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

The circle is a sign of Everything and Heaven. Symbolize something Sacred and Perfection. Without a start or end, symbolizes Eternity. In architecture, the circle has been used since Old Ages: from domes that rise from a circular base to watchtowers with a round ground plan, as well as military fortifications, cities, and castles. Looking for the stability and the strength that the round and close geometry will serve as a protection. For example, in old buildings and constructions, like the rocks in Stonehenge placed in a circle, the Rose Windows in the front façade of a cathedral, the center of a Christian temple where the dome rises.

The circle in the solar disc. The sun, Creator of Light and Fire, are the basic elements for Life on Earth.

The circle is a Christian symbology. The “Scutum Fidei” of the Holy Trinity is formed by the external circles. They represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, every one of them bounded in a central circle as a symbol of the Holy Trinity. The poet Dante also used the circle as a Christian sign in his text de Divine Comedy. He described a world divided into circles: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. He described the hierarchy of angels, arranged in circles around God.

The circle is a cover and the close circuit is a symbol of protection. For that is used as a way of protection, around the bonfire, cities, and castles. The circle is an image of family unity, the family circle, and a constant search for perfection.

All these ideas materialize in a humble design. A single rounded piece of stone, wrapped by a ring of stainless steel and two hollow lanes that frame the access cover and help to get rid of the rainwater. A circular cover that rises to show the crypt where the family remains will rest in peace. The stone circle rises from the ground showing its weightlessness, in the same way that we hope the souls that the ones who lay inside the mausoleum will elevate to a sacred place.

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Address:Terrassa, Spain