The historical chronotope. The shape as a trace at igualada cemetery-park

Abstract

Overcoming the modern understanding of architecture as a spatial practice, new approaches to architecture as a practice of both space and time have emerged in recent decades. Within this context, the concept of chronotope has been applied to the analysis of architecture as a connection between space and time through the place. The concept of historical chronotope, a specific type of chronotope, has not been developed in depth. Among space-time architectures, the work of Enric Miralles can be described as an architecture where space and time acquire the same significance, providing an experience of time through the experience of space. Among his works, the Igualada cemetery-park, designed with Carme Pinós, configures a place where space and time are inextricably connected by the shape as a chronotope. Considering the Igualada cemetery-park as a case study, this article recalls the concept of the historical chronotope to the debate on architecture as a practice of space and time. By means of understanding the shape as a trace, the connection between chronic world time and biological human time sets an historical chronotope through the calendar and funerary nature of the place. The analysis of the own words of Miralles shows his willing to build the place as an historical chronotope. Based on the interpretation of the shape as an historical trace, specific features about the concept of the historical chronotope are stated.