THE MEMORIAL WAY

Following a personal experience, the architects have initiated the project to give the deceased a beautiful farewell, celebrating their life and bringing back ceremonial elements of the past. Comprising a sequence of three rooms, developed around the place of the coffin as an epicenter, the structure aims to connect timeless values of our existence to modern ways of life. 

The Dutch architecture studio has identified three key moments in the procedure of a funeral: the gathering of friends and family, the actual ceremony of remembrance, and a third moment of social encounter, which it has then translated into a series of three carefully shaped rooms. “The lack of places for worthy send offs results in feelings of unease during crucial moments in our lives,” explains founding partner Michiel Hofman, “naturally following our design philosophy Shaping Intuition^®, focusing on the intuitive values of human beings, we designed a funeral centre that tries to break this discomfort,” he continues. “The design combines timeless qualities with elements of our modern ways of life.”

The first room is enclosed by a “memory wall”, a multimedia screen that greets guests with videos and photographs shared by family and friends, to form a lively collage celebrating their life. In the middle of the funeral centre, the space for the remembrance ceremony is shaped as a triangle, offering intimacy for both small and bigger groups. Its two curved walls and the ceiling bend inwards to define a passage where the coffin is placed, while behind, an expansive empty space opens towards a panorama of the surroundings, implying a flow back towards nature and closing the circle of life.

Timber clad walls and floor create a warm and comfortable atmosphere in the third room, which is designed as an opportunity to enhance social relations after the ceremony. “The way we say goodbye to our loved ones is a very personal decision,” explains Barbara Dujardin, founding partner at Hofmandujardin. “We designed a funeral centre that is specifically suitable for its function, and at the same time leaves room for interpretation – we think that sad moments in our life should be beautiful at the same time.”