House for Remains (Chapel & Columbarium)

A chapel and columbarium accessed by railway

Wye Landing Memory Houses by Robert Hutchison Robert Hutchison’s Memory Houses is a speculative project that investigates mortality and memory through the lens of architecture. Situated along the banks of the Wye River on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, architectural typologies such as dwelling, chapel, lighthouse, and memorial weave together spatial narrative about loss and recollection. Distant as well as more recent architectural memories make cameo appearances in the Memory Houses: the stave churches of Norway and the Great Mosque of Córdoba that Hutchison experienced as a child; the lighthouses of the Chesapeake Bay; the timber grain elevators of the Palouse; the Colosseum and the Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome. The project was significantly impacted by Hutchison’s experiences while a Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome from January through July 2017.

One of the nine projects that make up the Memory Houses, the House for Remains is designed for the family that owns and operates the nearby winery.

In contrast to the horizontality of the adjoining winery facility, the Chapel & Columbarium develop a vertical relationship between earth and sky. Access to the chapel is through a descending path into the semi-subterranean portion of the building. The pyramidal superstructure of the chapel strongly references the old milk house on the property, yet the scent of its shingle cladding treated with pine tar reminisces the stave churches of Norway.

Random wood shingles in the roof and walls are replaced with glass shingles, providing a dappled light in an otherwise dark interior, while alluding to the ubiquitous abandoned barns found throughout the countryside. The columbarium is located below the chapel and utilizes a corbelled brick structure similar to that found in the root cellars of nearby farmhouses.

Design: Robert Hutchison, 1994
Drawings: Sharon Fung, Marika Meinen, Hillary Pritchett
Models: Xiaoxi Jiao, Jackie Hensy, Kejia Zhang
Visualizations: Tristan Walker
Location: Wye Mills, MD
Large Model: Blackened Steel Base (fabricated by Dovetail Contractors), Cast Concrete, Painted Wood
Conceptual Model: Wood Base, Cast Concrete, Painted Wood
Photography: Mark Woods Photography, Jill Hardy

Sources:
Norwegian Stave Church + Milkhouse + Vernacular Barn