Le Corbusier designed a pair of markers in the style of one of his own concrete architectural models.
Carlo Scarpa, who was buried standing up and wrapped in linen in the style of a medieval knight, has a marble grave with a maze-like design.
Frank Lloyd Wright's marker could not even be called a gravestone, because it looks more like an uncut rock.
Meanwhile, Buckminster Fuller's grave has an esoteric quote he once gave to Playboy magazine inscribed on it: "Call me Trimtab."
— curbed.com
Sure, an article like this suggests a click bait-y listicle, heavy on images and light on content. But what's installed astride an architect's final resting place is of grave (pardon the pun) importance. Not only would it be surrealistically disorienting to have an architect's professional style countered by an antithetical gravesite, but it also smacks of lost opportunity – this is the final personal statement, in a way, that an architect can make.
It's also heartening to realize that even when they died unexpectedly, these architects had their plans sorted. Check out their graves below (a wholehearted and respectful h/t to Curbed for sourcing most of the images):
Alvar Aalto, Hietaniemi cemetery in Helsinki, Finland:
Bruce Goff, Chicago's Graceland cemetery:
Adolf Loos, Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria:
Buckminster Fuller, Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Frank Lloyd Wright (first grave), Unity Chapel Cemetery in Wyoming, Wisconsin (According to Curbed, FLW's final resting place is at Taliesin West in Scotsville, Arizona):
Le Corbusier, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France:
Carlo Scarpa, Brion Cemetery, Treviso, Italy:
Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois:
18 Comments
Architecture Media 2015
"Sure, an article like this suggests a click bait-y listicle, heavy on images and light on content."
[.........]
It's worse than that. Nothing more boring than these analytics marketing people trying to ramp up their numbers with faux "content"... The formula is famous architecture icon + personal interest angle [or tendy political issue if you prefer] repeat as nauseum. It's mostly PR people laughing AT architects not really for us.
Seems like the goal of the new design media is to make architects look like silly pretentious doghouse designers... As written by the "feminist" bloggers
Lightperson, who are "the "feminist" bloggers" you're referring to?
Curbed just published a silly article about Lina Bo Bardi, featuring common feminist tropes, oversimplifying her work. Like I said, personal interest. She's so hot right now! The feminist angle is too easy. But doesn't really serve women men or architecture discussion.
I once made a cat shelter that was featured on curbed... I was ok with that though.
Lightperson = Darkman (for context)
Duh everybody knows that. I announced my name change to be more positive. Unfortunatley the redic design media keeps pulling me back. the branding culture wants to label everything in an easily digestible and marketable form. Architects should be aware of the forces that shape the media... Much of it is not in our corner. These archs would be rolling in their graves (maybe they should have listened closely) and the feminist thing is relevant because media editors (90% female) make it an issue constantly,
Lightperson, "the feminist thing" is relevant because 100% of the population of our country, of every gender on the spectrum, is impacted by unconscious acceptance of an unfair patriarchal system.
You've been posting such great stuff lately, Lightperson! but when feminism comes up I feel like you're falling back on tropes about what feminism is that don't hold true any longer. I'd like to talk more, and have a good discussion about it, but I'm about to get on a long plane ride. I'll start with this: feminism is not only about leveling the field for women, it's about leveling it for everyone. Men have in many ways benefited from feminism in its current form already: how common were stay-at-home fathers 20 years ago? And how much less is being a stay-at-home dad, or mom, likely to bring ridicule or non-acceptance these days?
Oh and I love this image library of architects' graves. Didn't *every* architecture student consider this at some time during school? Or were my friends and I morose? I considered being cremated then encased in an awesome brass doorknob.
I want a green burial with a tree planted on my resting spot. This is what I do when we loose a pet.
Carlo scarpas is the best, the hole to where? Donna I remember a list that went around via email probably 10 years ago noting how most architects died....mainly Old (late 70's) and heart failure.
Lightperson you are complaining about Curbed? Really? Who takes curbed seriously? I rarely laugh harder when reading their posts. Curbed is not serious journalism dude.
The poignancy of Bucky's wife dying, 2 days after he passed, should not go unremarked. A deep, abiding love existed.
I think it's more important to look at graves that were explicitly designed by architects... the Louis Sullivan tombs for instance. It's not even clear what these are trying to communicate. Some just look traditional.
I used to like Curbed when they were the gritty on the street reporters. Then they sold out to Vox, another corner of the internet to be commodified--another design aggrigator with a heavy dose of politically correct, design cliche kool-aid. It takes a little while to connect the dots, but they are there to be seen for anyone that is interested. Rem talks a lot about this kind of thing--Fundamentals was all about the physical elements of design, not "identity." Just don't blame me when the New York Times arch critic starts in with the architect designed doghouses (they are moving to Facebook, so...). I like archinect because it is like the old, fun internet of nerdy communities that care about, like, architecture. But I can see the PC creeping in....
As for the "feminist thing," I remember a brief time (2000-2010) when women were being recognized for the quality work without the media condescension ... Berke, Seldorf, Zaha even Lina Bo Bardi... now it is a branding tool--the feminist architect as the opposite of the dogmatic modernist male. Even this grossly oversimplifies history: as if the Bauhaus is the beginning and end of all modernism. It's sort of an embarrasement how each architect is not taken on his or her own terms rather than as a brand. Latin Americanism! Feminism! Brutalism! All easily digestable and tweetable brands.
Still I am hopeful that architecture itself, or at least a real understanding of it, can solve many of these problems. As soon as we focus on buildings, real problems can be solved. You could also see this particular article as a small piece of the libral fever dream of the great but ultimatley dead architect, unable to build his way out of mortality... but i digress again.
Olaf, here is a link to an old Archinect article that contains a link to Brian Boyer's death.ofthiswearesure website chronicaling architects' deaths.
http://archinect.com/news/article/82153/memento-mori-the-architect-s-graveyard
Thanks Donna looks familiar......beta like June Carter and Johnny Cash.......I go deathbyarch
Apparently Graceland Cemetery in Chicago is the unofficial "Architects Graveyard" - lots of famous graves there.
http://www.gracelandcemetery.org/pages/architects.html
A few more good ones here. I love Richard Nickel's unadorned stone patch.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.