Samuel Drago Architects

The design of the chapel in the Mazzarrone cemetery comes from a deep research about the origins of the sacred space, its meaning and the architectural archetypes that I studied in Rudolf Schwarz’s books, during my Ph.D. The whole Mazzarrone cemetery design is based on a very rational plan: the chapel is placed in the middle of a perfect cross.

Stone and marble are the main materials of this central plan building that communicates metaphors of life and death, human and divine sense thanks to a game of contrasts between light and dark and the use of the materials. The chapel is made of an inner dome and an external thick wall without roof: the inner dome becomes thinner from the bottom up, until the marble takes on almost the consistency of the glass allowing sunlight to spread down, creating a glorious, rarefied and symbolic atmosphere that recall the God’s light. 

The space between the chapel and the outer wall is a narrow corridor, a dark circular path which receives light only from above.