The universe (which others call the cemetery) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries. In the center of each gallery there is a garden, bounded by a low railing. From any hexagon, one can see the floors above and below, one after the other, endlessly. The arrangement of the galleries is always the same: twenty niches, five to each side, line four of the hexagon’s six sides; the height of the niches, floor to ceiling, is hardly greater than the height of a normal gravedigger. One of the hexagon’s free sides opens onto a narrow sort of vestibule, which, in turn, opens onto another gallery, identical to the first, identical in fact to all. To the left and right of the vestibule there are two tiny compartments. One is for sleeping, upright; the other, for satisfying one’s physical necessities. Through this space, too, there passes a spiral staircase, which winds upwards and downwards into the remotest distance. In the vestibule, there is a mirror, which faithfully duplicates appearances. Men often infer from this mirror that the cemetery is not infinite – if it were, what need would there be for that illusory replication? I prefer to dream that burnished surfaces are a figuration and promise of the infinite. . . .Light is provided by certain spherical fruits that bear the name “bulbs.” There are two of these bulbs in each hexagon, set crosswise. The light they give is insufficient, and unceasing.

Like all the men of the cemetery, in my younger days i traveled; i have journeyed in quest of a coffin, perhaps my own coffin. Now that my eyes can hardly make out what i myself have written, i am preparing to die, a few leagues from the hexagon where i was born. When i am dead, compassionate hands will throw me over the railing; my tomb will be the unfathomable air, my body will sink for ages, and will decay and dissolve in the wind engendered by my fall, which shall be infinite. I declare that the cemetery of babel is endless. Idealists argue that the hexagonal rooms are the necessary shape of absolute space, or at least of our perception of space. They argue that a triangular or pentagonal chamber is inconceivable. (Mystics claim that their ecstasies reveal to them a circular chamber containing an enor- mous circular coffin with a continuous spine that goes completely around the walls. But their testimony is suspicious, their words, obs- cure. That cyclical coffin is god.) Let it suffice for the moment that i repeat the classic dictum: the cemetery is a sphere whose exact center is any hexagon and whose circumference is unattainable.

The cemetery of babel is a theoretical architectural project that seeks to define the format of the ultimate cemetery. Its form derives from a literary work, “La Biblioteca de Babel”, a short story by argen- tinean author Jorge Luis Borges, written in 1941, where all references to library’s and books have been switched to cemeteries, coffins and niches. The composition of the project takes its cue from an existing and unknown architectural work, “los panteones subterráneos de Chacarita” (the underground pantheons of Chacarita), which is a massive systemic and public project built by the municipality of bue- nos aires during the late fifties, under the direction of architects Itala Fluvia Villa and Clorindo Testa, among others

The goal of Cemetery of Babel is two-fold: firstly, to explore the latent spatial compositions of borges’ work. Secondly –and most importantly– to rediscover through this methodology the successful organization and architectural achievements of the Chacarita pro- ject. Defined at first sight only by a series of follies in the landscape, which house circulation and ventilation systems, the project is completely laid downwards, with vast gardens that provide sunlight and ventilation and an endless system of niches and tombs. Unad- dressed in local or international discussions since its construction fifty years ago, the underground pantheons not only provide a valid example of a systemized and infinite cemetery, but also show ways and manners on how to create underground.