Haverstock's crematorium thoughtfully orchestrates the mourner’s journey, avoiding functional aspects intruding on the experience
Haverstock for Guildford Crematorium
Contract value: £10m
GIA: 748m²
Cost per m²: £8,256
The thoroughness of the design process is evident in the careful orchestration of the mourner’s journey, avoiding functional aspects intruding on the experience. It creates a world of colonnades and garden courts, beneath a strong horizontal roof datum. The walls and columns that rise up to meet this roof have a solemnity and seriousness: defining routes, bounding spaces and filtering views.
The beauty and delicacy of the excellent landscaping and planting act as a counterpoint. As mourners approach the main chapel building, the great datum of the roof forms a sheltering canopy and frames a view into a garden court. Turning from here into the chapel, this datum is dramatically broken through by a dynamic geometric roof, with natural light filtered through the ribs of the timber structure. In its own abstracted way, it is mediating our understanding of life and death.
Regional Building of the Year 2022
South East RIBA Regional Award 2022
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