Site Specific: A Columbarium for Chartreuse Cemetery

Jenna Kaes, Martial Marquet Studio, Atelier Renan Rousselot - Bordeaux, 2023

Le cimetière de la Chartreuse in Bordeaux was constructed in the late eighteenth century on the site of a former Carthusian convent. It houses a considerable selection of funerary monuments, sarcophagi and neo-classical monuments and is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Despite its listing the cemetery has been somewhat neglected and recently has not had the space to accommodate the growing number of Bordelais now opting for cremation.

On 31 October 2023 a new Columbarium and Garden of Remembrance was inaugurated. The result of a competition win in 2022 this project is a collaboration between artist Jenna Kaës, architect Martial Marquet and landscape designer Renan Rousselot.

The project is depicted below via a series of photographs by Emile Barret, taken in high summer, and by Andreas Kofler, taken in the winter.

MMS Bordeaux’s Chartreuse cemetery, a former monastic garden that became a cemetery and a philosophical park in the 19th century, has a unique history and appearance and consists of beautiful alleys of monumental and richly ornamented funerary chapels from the 18th to early 20th centuries.

This built heritage has recently been endangered by a lack of means for its continued preservation. The new Columbarium project helps to signal a wider awareness of the current situation and some efforts are now being made to preserve the most significant monuments within the cemetery.

The project is essentially a promenade that integrates the new columbarium infrastructure and garden of remembrance into a generously planted landscape. The in-situ concrete and stone architecture of the Columbarium forms a passage, composed of four walls which each hold a hundred niches. Recently collapsed funerary chapels and demolished tombs have been the source of carefully selected architectural fragments which have been sealed in to the concrete walls.  Niches have been made in the concrete surface to frame the larger elements. The funerary niches are arrayed along the inner side of the walls and fabricated with pre-cast concrete doors that are detailed with custom-sculpted draperies and cast bronze handles. 

The Garden of Remembrance, in which the columbarium is set, takes the form of a clearing surrounded by dense shrubbery and a variety of trees. The path is made of compacted and draining local limestone gravel, allowing rainwater to seep into the ground. The vegetation is made up of a variety of local species. Specially adapted and hardy plant species have been chosen, planted while still young to adapt better to the site conditions.

Benches, made with a collage of reclaimed tomb stones, have been added to the garden.

NOTES

Many thanks to Martial Marquet for his help in compiling this post.

Photography is by Emilie Barrett and Andreas Kofler.

Posted 5th October 2024.