Arnošt Wiesner: On the Construction of the Crematorium

Cremation as a modern method of burial poses a construction problem for today’s architect - in an ideological and artistic sense - akin to that which was the highest architectural expression of cult in two sections of cultural history: the pyramid and the church. Both types of these buildings are the most precise symbols of cult.
Our time, which seeks to rid itself of religious ceremony - in an effort to delve into the depth of every feeling - has again arrived at cremation. However, if the cremation cult - cremation - as the oldest method of burial we know, had its limits in its primitivism - the highest artistic form, our time, which no longer knows cremation in this elementary form, lacks the consecration for it. For the technical form, the technical apparatus used today for cremation, intrudes with its effort for abstraction and does not allow for the mental detachment that is supposed to evoke in the bereaved the last moments of earthly existence of man. It is certain that today’s execution of cremation precedes the creation of a new cult, yet this cult will arise only when our time - technique and art - find for it an expression that would match both its internal and external grandeur of the cult expression of those times.
And today’s architect is called to give the cult its form, its external expression, in order to achieve the internal effect.
In the designs for the construction of the crematorium in Brno, as a result of these thoughts, the architectural strictness has expressed the division - the sequence - of the entire funeral procession. In front of the cremation space lies a ceremony courtyard covered with glass. Between the cremation space and the ceremonial courtyard is a room for displaying the coffin, a catafalque, a funeral chamber. It is open towards the ceremonial courtyard and closed towards the cremation space. After the ceremonies are finished, heavy stone doors made of alabaster slabs, white translucent marble, or polished tempered glass will close the funeral chamber, and at the same time, the doors to the cremation space will open, and the corpse will be slid into the cremation space. Immediately the funeral chamber will be closed to the cremation space, while the heavy stone doors to the ceremonial hall will open, and the empty catafalque will shine with the brightest light.
Externally, the idea of space is expressed such that the lower side rooms, the anteroom, and the waiting room completely surround the elevated courtyard, which, however, has no windows to the outside but is illuminated by huge glass panels - the sky - and is enclosed. The idea of the courtyard stemmed from the consideration that the room lying in front of the cremation space and the funeral chamber for the display of the coffin cannot possibly be a hall or a church room, but only a place enclosed from the outside and thus a closed courtyard.
The cremation space is, however, located in the very interior of the complex of buildings, completely enclosed, partially a columbarium, partially a tract of corpses' chambers - but it is separated from them by courtyards - and inaccessible from the outside.
In this way, the cremation space is rid of all profane qualities, and the separation that belongs to it is given and also externally architecturally expressed.
However, the technical and ideological idea of cremation reaches its highest expression in the enormous stone prism of the chimney, which transforms the last remnants of the earthly body into smoke and ash. The form that is technically necessary for the cremation process is not hidden in the attics, towers, and dormers, but is also expressed architecturally as the ideological last and highest idea. The arrangement of spaces in its individual aspects flows almost inevitably from this. In front of the ceremonial courtyard lies the anteroom, which is accessed by a powerful staircase. To the right and left, rooms for mourners and other supplementary spaces are attached to this anteroom. Along one side of the ceremonial hall runs a wide corridor with a covered anteroom, while on the other side, a closed columbarium is attached, as well as winged structures with pergolas that hold urns. In the axis of the ceremonial courtyard, the already mentioned hall for displaying the coffin is located,
to the right next to it is a room for sprinkling, which is connected to it, separated by a courtyard and a corridor, a wing with corpses' chambers. The room for displaying the coffin and the cremation space are not directly next to each other, but there is still an anteroom inserted between the two rooms.
The cremation space is a two-story hall. It is surrounded by the aforementioned rooms and side halls that are necessary for their operation.
The formal idea that must lead the creation of such a building is already given by the ideological premises. The crematorium building system can only be considered solved in all respects when the floor plan and the building form the most complete unity. The layout of the spaces must be such that the variability of the main layout is not actually even possible, and the building must express that. The layout must be a formal type, such as the Egyptian tomb or the Christian church. That individualization in terms of form will always be able to be applied is self-evident.