Shah-i-Zinda (II)

This article is part of the Hidden Architecture Series “Tentative d’Épuisement” , where we explore the practice of an architectural criticism without rhetoric and based mainly on the physical experience of the work itself. Este artículo forma parte de la serie “Tentativa de Agotamiento” , comisariada por Hidden Architecture, donde exploramos la práctica de una crítica arquitectónica ausente de retórica y fundamentada sobre todo en la experiencia física de la propia obra. Hidden Architecture: Shah-i-Zinda (I) Beyond the entrance arch, a narrow street stretches through the shadows, housing the succession of small mausoleums and defining the formal organisation of Shah-i-Zinda. Each of the buildings is on a scale similar to that of a small house. It is a space with an urban identity for worship, but its morphology and structure seems to be closer to a souk or to any of the dusty streets we have travelled here. Groups of worshippers enter and leave the various mausoleums, in a movement synchronised to perfection to be executed almost unconsciously. Traspasado el arco de entrada, una estrecha calle se extiende entre sombras alojando la sucesión de pequeños mausoleos y definiendo la organización formal de Shah-i-Zinda. Cada una de las edificaciones que lo componen tiene una escala similar a una pequeña vivienda. Se trata de un espacio con identidad urbana destinado al culto, pero su morfología y estructura parece estar más próxima a un zoco o a cualquiera de las calles polvorientas que recorrimos hasta llegar aquí. Grupos de fieles entran y salen de los distintos mausoleos, en un movimiento sincronizado hasta la perfección para ser ejecutado de manera casi inconsciente. The floor is made of ceramic tiles, which are laid in brick format to form the base on which the mausoleum structures are built. This base is approximately one metre high, with four or five high, uncomfortable steps leading into the interior of the funerary space.