Vancouver-based Shape Architecture has unveiled the charred-wood South Haven Centre for Remembrance within a municipal cemetery on the outskirts of the city of Edmonton, Canada.
Built to serve a non-denominational cemetery, Shape Architecture aimed to create a building that was sensitive to its site and conveyed a sense of remembrance without making strong references to religion.
Shape Architecture has built the South Haven Centre for Remembrance
"Given the cemetery is non-denominational; the mandate was to create a building that would speak to everyone without any literal references or iconography," said Shape Architecture partner Dwayne Smyth.
"This was one of the most challenging and also motivating drivers behind the evolution of the design as it pushed the design to be continually refined and edited," he told Dezeen. "The result was a project that strives to be timeless and move everyone in some way." The centre for remembrance is semi-submerged in the landscape
Partially submerged in the landscape, the 650-square-metre, single-storey building contains the cemetery's public meeting rooms as well as its offices for maintenance staff and a large garage, which is hidden from the cemetery by a low wall.
These public and staff areas are positioned at either end of the building and divided by a large lobby and reception area that has a full-height window with views across the cemetery.
It is topped by an angular tower
A 13-metre tall, angular...