zwischen den Wellen
Merlin Frühwald
The thesis explores the design of an underground crematorium with a columbarium located on the Postalm in the Salzburg Alps.
The concept is based on timeless cycles and the orders of space and time, gravity, curvature, and wave motion, translated into ritual and architectural structures. The focus lies on the spatial articulation of death as an irreversible transition within cyclical processes. Physical principles, funerary rituals, and historical sepulchral forms are interlinked. The subterranean structure refers to pre-Christian burial mounds, transferring their typology into a contemporary order. Line, wave, and circle define the spatial sequence. Visitor and service areas are separated but compositionally connected. Water-resistant concrete ensures structural integrity, moss cement mediates between nature and construction. Earth, water, air, and fire act as spatial elements for farewell, transformation, and remembrance.