New deal for crem users

Charles 4 Comments
Charles

 

The newly made-over chapel at Parndon Wood, Harlow by the Westerleigh Group. Report

Below, a crematorium chapel in Sweden, where numbers of people wishing to witness cremation are rising. Jan Olov Andersson, CEO of the Swedish Federation of Cemeteries and Crematoria, said “I think we haven’t been that good at informing the public. And in areas where we have informed bereaved relatives of the option we have noted a significant increase in requests.”

 

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gloria mundi
11 years ago

Nice to see the crem at Harlow done up – but sorry if this sounds negative – it’s still a conservative, hierarchical space with little sense of ritual presentation outside a traditional Christian largely verbal liturgy. It’s still a small, cramped space. The Swedish one brings the congregation round the room, puts the coffin close to them, has a space for ritual marked off and emphasised if if its needed, it’s flexible, it can easily be used to create involvement as well as separation, and I want to work in a place like that – need I go on? OK,… Read more »

Kathryn Edwards
Kathryn Edwards
11 years ago

Hoorah for movable furniture!

sweetpea
sweetpea
11 years ago

What a beautiful, practial and useful space our Scandinavian friends have created. Talking to a British architect a few years ago about crematoria rooms for ritual, he seemed rather more preoccupied with sound reduction and ducting….

Ru Callender
11 years ago

I cannot see what might have changed in this crematorium. The Westerleigh Group have performed a similar ‘makeover’ of our local crematorium chapel which involved moving the stereo out of the actual room and very little else. Oh, sorry, and enlarging the awning outside where the hearse draws up. Westerleigh are, in my opinion, in grave danger of being perceived as dinosaurs. We need much bigger change to these spaces other than a revamping of the shelves outside that the flowers are displayed on. When will these organisations realise they can make much more significant improvements to their services by… Read more »