Austrian architect Adolf Loos (1870-1933) said:
‘Only a very small part of architecture belongs to art: the grave and the monument. Everything else that performs a function should be excluded from the domain of art’
From the discipline of garden and landscape architecture, I have also always turned my view in the direction of funerary art.
My aspiration to contribute to the further evolution of funerary art and mourning culture is very great in this regard. Knowledge of funerary art, the creative expression of deep human needs and the creation of a comforting beauty is essential to this end.
Comforting and contemplative funerary and landscape art can only arise from the personally experienced grief or from a very deep empathy of the artist himself. Beauty has a comforting effect. My work should be the silent expression of this.
The grave as a monument
Occasionally, I am commissioned to create a new grave monument in the cemetery where people bury their loved one. People with profound or cultural content persistently search for an appropriate design for the monument of their life or the life of their loved one. A monument that brings out the character and emotional world of the deceased. Not a monument like one in a thousand, because this person involved did not live like that. A dignified human being with his own character, feelings and vision. A person who did not let himself live downstream, along with the masses. These people deserve an exclusive design for the monument of their lives.
The cemetery as a monument
In my cemetery designs, I always take a holistic approach. All the different components of the cemetery should form a harmonious whole. Delivering a ‘gesamtkunstwerk’ is always my goal! To this end, an exclusive design is always made for the gates, steps, candelabras, covered and uncovered memorial and farewell places, entrance or gate buildings, seating, columbaria, urn monuments, memorial walls, poetic inscriptions in the form of haikus, lettering design, integration of ancient symbols, etc. … All these funerary works of art together form a whole that, when entering these cemeteries, we no longer speak of the grave as the monument but of the cemetery as the monument!
Funerary art installations
In my career to date I have designed 3 temporary art installations. ‘Epiphany’, ‘Epekeina’ and ‘Resurrectionem’. These deeply empathetic art installations should touch the visitor to their deepest essence. In each case, the art installations are deeply imbued with mythological and psychological aspects. Three ancient questions of humanity are recalled upon entering these art installations:
Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?
Mexican autodidactic architect Louis Barragan (1902-1988) said:
‘I don’t divide architecture, landscape and gardening. To me they are one’
From the discipline of garden and landscape architecture, it is impossible not to take architecture into account in a project. An architectural knowledge and creativity is essential. In the Artistic Humanities at Sint-Lucas Ghent, I received the best architectural training for 3 years from teacher-architect Gilbert Decouvreur. This training still determines my work today, in which I approach each project from a very broad vision of garden, landscape, urban planning, architecture and design.
Clients occasionally ask me to think about the architecture from the very beginning of their project. This always proves to be an added value because, from a holistic vision, all the different components can be anchored harmoniously together.
Embedding the building in its surroundings is part of the very first investigation. This takes into account orientation, sun, wind, views to and from the building, drainage of the building and site, earthworks, urban planning regulations, use of materials, etc.
The complete design concept can be worked out at our office. Once the concept is finalised, we work together with an engineer-architect to finalise the entire project in technical, energy and budgetary terms.
