Kirhlyar cemetery is the oldest active burial ground in Russian Federation. Today the cemetery retains its important role in the life of the city’s multicultural urban society.

In the years 2020-2021, after an invited competition, the city carried out the renovation and refurbishment of the cemetery based on our project. The choice between conservation and enhancement strategies has been made in favor of the latter. The project fulfills the right of the people to live in beautiful surroundings, to enjoy their heritage, to preserve intangible values and traditions and pass them to future generations.

The project goals are:
a)  provide a high level of infrastructure for the needs of the daily life of the local community, including accessibility and inclusion;
b)  preserve the cemetery as a significant place of religious worship while carefully maintaining tradition;

c)  rethink the site as a public recreational space, historical landmark and point of attraction for tourists.

Renovation works were carried out by several small local construction teams, which is why the architectural design was purposefully adapted to the specifics of available building technologies. The architects gave preference to solutions that can be implemented of structures made by hands “in situ” — with minimum prefabricated design elements.
The visual language of the project is defined by local materials — the Derbent shell stone with a warm, yellow tint, and Caspian pebble.