BURIAL LANDSCAPES These cemeteries could be substantial in size and far

larger than churchyards:

Burial landscapes reflect a civilization’s religious and  Brompton Cemetery – Benjamin Baud (1840):
cultural attitude towards death and the deceased. Part of inner London. And Part of the 7
magnificent cemeteries.
Ancient times:
 Burying people in tombs DISTINGUISHABLE FEATURES OF A CEMETERY:
- THE ENTRANCE:
Rise of Christianity: It is clear you leave daily life, and THE GATE
 Burying the dead ether in churches, or around symbolises this transition from one world to the
the churches in the churchyards. (Depending on other.
the social status)
 Increase the chances of salvation - CLEAR BOUNDARY:
Marked by a hedge or other planting. Commonly
Enlightenment: a substantial structure is used.
 Brought a new approach of urban planning an o High walls, Railings, a Ditch, or a
hygiene became a high priority. As a result new Watercourse.
burial sites were created outside of the city Symbolically it again marks the boundary
borders between the living and the deceased.
 Concept sought a balance between humanist
and Christian ideas. - SYMBOLISM:
The paraphernalia of death
THE CEMETERY: o ‘Time Flies’ > The hourglass with wings
Becomes a place to commemorate the deceased loved o The snake devouring its own tail
ones.
o The weeping willow
- Are distinguished and should be seen a separate
o The broken column
from churchyards.
o 1894: The angel of grief
CHURCHYARDS:
o Skulls and bones
Are traditionally places of burial, connected to
o Memento mori.
churches, either physically, or through the
ownership of the church.
NATIONAL COMMEMORATIVE:
Cemeteries with a political background, referring for
DEFINITIONS:
example to WWI & WWII.
- CHURCHYARD:
An enclosed area surrounding a church,
PILGRIMAGE:
especially as used for burials.
As a pleasure seeking and recreation to visit famous
- GRAVEYARD:
graves.
A burial ground, especially one beside a church.
- CEMETERY:
18TH CENTURY:
A large burial ground, especially one not in a
At the end of the 18th century the awareness on diseases
churchyard.
increased, blamed on impure air.
- BURIAL GROUND:
 Louis XIV and Joseph II (Emperor of Habsburg)
An area of ground set aside for the burying of
forbid to bury the dead in cities or villages.
human bodies.
 Code Civil of Napoleon Bonaparte was needed
for the application of the rules.
THE LOCATION & SIZE (CEMETERIES):
Cemeteries are generally close to, but not necessarily
within, settlements.
 The idea was to relocate the corps from the
settlements, because by the 18th century it was
deemed as dangerous for public health
  MORTUARY CHAPELS became useful

PERE-LACHAISE – Alexandre-Theodore Brongniart (1813) INSPIRED BY PERE-LACHAISE:

- RURAL CEMETERY
- Former estate in baroque style
- The Architect:
Was obliged to conform to the plans that were
already made (in baroque style) and to submit
to the shape and movement of the land.
- The Plan:
Presents a Landscape Park, exploiting the
uneven terrain, with views on the city of Paris,
tying it with a circuit > Carriage path.
 THE PLAN:
The plan served as a model for the
establishment of many cemeteries in both North
America and in Europe in the first half of the 19 th
century.
- The built elements:
En Vogue > Neoclassical style.
o Entrance:
Etienne-Hyppolyte Godde (1820)
- Marketing used to make it more attractive for
Parisians to use the cemetery outside of the city.
Putting the remains of famous people in the
cemetery.
 Mount Auburn Cemetery – Jacob Bigelow &
Henry …(?) in Boston:
o Egyptian Revival to the intentions of the
holy and the sublime.
o 1908: Cars were allowed in the
cemetery and car gates were added in
1913. (Before > Carriages and on foot)
o The Plan:
Became the prototype of the rural
cemetery, which was duplicated
throughout the USA.
 Garden/Rural Cemetery:
The Architecture were eclectic. (Gothic, Egyptian
etc.)
o Resembles Pere-Lachaise but differs in
size, original landscape (Picturesque
Garden vs. Wilderness), topography and
the schemer (Formal vs. Informal)
FUNCTION:
The Cemetery of Mount Auburn functioned as a PARK
(like Pere-Lachaise).

 Paris and its environs – A. Pugin (1828-1831)

1830:
Cholera broke out in Europe. Seen as a product made by
evil fumes.

1884/94:
Second wave of Cholera.

- 1862: Pere-Lachaise got expanded.

The cemetery had to accommodate growing
demand, and the tombstones started to edge
out all the greenery.
 The picturesque Landscape park of the early 19 th
century transformed into a micro polis.

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)

- The Premature Burial (1844)
The general fear let to invention of many safety
devices, incorporated into coffins.
o Led to the opinion that the corpse
should not be immediately buried. (at
least 3 days should be left between
death and burial)

PART 2:
J.C. LOUDON (1783-1843):
- Key figure because he made gardening popular
and useful by publishing magazines.
 Book:
On the Laying Out, Planting and Managing of
Cemeteries and the improvement of
Churchyards (1843).
o Practical problems cemeteries:
How to design them best?
o Works and remarks on sewage and how
to dig graves.
o References and illustrations from China
and Turkey to support his statements.
o Primary objective cemetery:
Was for him the disposal of the remains
of the dead.
o Protection of the living was paramount:
Graves needed to be on a suitable
distance of the town population.
o Boundary of trees.
 ADDS MEANING TO THE CEMETERY:
The cemetery as a compass to landscaping.
7 MAGNIFICENT CEMETERIES (LONDON):
Increase of the cemeteries, due to 2 major reasons:
1. The London population grew
2. 2 cholera epidemics (1830s &40s)
1847: Cemetery Clauses Act
The Magnificent 7:
- Were a social success
- Appearance more of a gentleman’s park than
the city of the dead.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CEMETERIES IN THE
NETHERLANDS:
Exhilarated with the royal decree in 1826.
1829: Towns should have an outdoor cemetery.
 Oude Stadsbegraafplaats Leeuwarden –
Roodbaard (1829):
Divided in 6 kidney-form cemeteries/yards.
o On the gates there are the symbols of
memento mori.
 Soestbergen Cemetery Utrecht - J.D. Zocher
(1830):
o Municipal cemetery, all kinds of people
are welcome
o Columns: Underlying the transition from
a lively world to a location of silence
o Roundabout hill.
o Horticulture: Evergreen covers
 Nieuwe Oosterbergaafplaas Amsterdam – L.A.
Springer (1889-1894):
o Designed in the Mixed Style, combining
monumental forms alongside scenic and
romantic structures.
o Requirements: Landscape Park, Place for
digs and graves, had to be accessible by
carriage and on foot etc.
o Horticulture: Evergreens
NEW CONCEPT OF A CEMETERY – THE WOODLAND
CEMETERY:
German idea and arose as an response against the
impoverished appearance of many municipal cemeteries
at the beginning of the 20th century.
 Waldfriedhof in Munich – H. Grassel (1919-
1920):
o This is the liberation of grey, depressing
mess of the modern burial place.
 Waldfriedhof – Davos Platz:
o Built when the old cemetery had
become too small.
o Enclosed by a dry-stone wall.
o Designed, non-designed design:
By using the different open and density
identities.
o The ground is landed a uniformity of
character.
LEADING TO THE FOREST CEMETERY:
 Skogskyrkogarden in Stockholm – G. Asplund &
S. Lewerentz (1918-19)
o Wanted to maintain the forest as much
as possible and the graves should have a
subordinate role to the natural
environment.
o The architects belong to the modern
movement, having had the urge to
discard history and start anew.
o Axes differ from before (eccentric tot
the main entrance)

CRITIQUE ON THE TRADITIONAL CEMETERY:
- The traditional gardens and parks were seen as
artificial. They were products of an obsolete
culture, which was no longer relevant to the
needs of a utilitarian era.
 Skogskyrkogarden in Stockholm – G. Asplund &
S. Lewerentz (1918-19):
It is a completely new kind of cemetery. Neither
Landscape Garden, but a natural environment
with woodlands. The burial mounts relate to the
Nordic Landscape and no greys are visible.
o Staged Landscape, playing with your
mind.
o Austere culture is reflected in the fields
with the graves.
PART 3:
IMPERIAL WAR GRAVES COMMISSION:
- Founded by Fabian Ware -
July 1917:
1. Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) – Architect
2. Herbert Baker (1862-1946) - Architect
3. Charles Atkin – Director of the national Gallery
4. Arthur Hill – Assistant director of Kew Gardens
 They were invited to advice on the design of war
cemeteries and future war monuments.
The consolation of flowers: Poppy Flower
1918:
These three principal architects of England were
appointed.
1. Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944)
2. Reginal Blomfield (1856-1942)
5. Herbert Baker (1862-1946)
 Results:
976 cemeteries in Belgium and France, done
against a political background.
 Imperial War Graves Commission:
Consisting of the same elements
o War stone
Also known as the stone of remembrance and
one of the standard architectural features of
commonwealth war graves commissions,
cemeteries, and memorials.
o Individual graves
o Idea that everyone is equal
o All graves oriented towards the east
CROSS OF SACRIFICE AS POINT OF ORIENTATION:
 Tyne Cot Cemetery, Cross of Sacrifice –
Blomfield (1918):
o Freestanding
o Typical British war memorial.
 Tyne Cot Cemetery (Belgium) – Herbert Baker.
o Has a typical wall of memorial, bearing
the names of the missing soldiers.
The cemeteries of the great war are a combination of
architecture and landscape architecture. Edwin Lutyens
(1869-1944) was one of the frontmen who could have
done this.
1937:
 D.F. Tersteeg:
The representative of the new architectural
garden style:
o Masonry elements in all possible
variants.
o Layout based on more than one main
axes.
 Cemetery in Naarden
(Original Plan remained
unfinished)
THE NETHERLANDS:
More usual for the Garden and Landscape Architects to
design the cemeteries than architects alone.
 Algemene Begraafplaats in Doorn – W.C.J. Boer
(1959):
o Style of THE MODERN MOVEMENT
o Opted for a functionalist design with
perpendicular angles and straight lines.
o Grave fields represented as rectangular
chambers, cut out of the forest with the
entrance in the direction of the
auditorium.
o Uniformity, in the aim at equality
THE NEW CITIES IN THE POLDER OF THE NETHERLANDS:
 Cemetery Almere Haven – Christiaan Zalm
(1975):
o Requirements: place for lots of graves,
sheltered from the weather and the
cemetery had to be lined with greenery.
Accessible for pedestrians, cyclists and
cars. Recognisable as a cemetery in form
and use.
o Result:
A Park in which the graves fields/stones
have been made invisible by hedges and
trees, keeping the recreational users
apart from the private use or
ceremonies.

GROWTH OF THE CITIES/POPULATION:

 Extension Oosterbegraafplaats Amsterdam –
Karres & Brands (2014):
o Original designed by Springer.
o Added sections with a clear spatial
quality
o Transformed to the garden of
remembrance.
o The addition of urn gardens
 New Identity designed for the third phase: Each
area bearing a its own character and qualities.

LAST 10 YEARS:
There is a growing concern of our carbon footprint.
Being buried in traditional cemeteries enlarges our
carbon footprint and is not sustainable.

GREEN BURIALS:
A movement started in Great Britain, connotating that
trees are planted on our closed graves. Some even
operate as charitable trusts. You can stay forever,
making it a true place for rest.

 Natuurbegraafplaats Hillig Meer, Eext (2012)

o Hard to see where the graves are.

CEMETERIES AS A FORM OF DESIGN, BUT SOMETIMES

THE LACK OF DESIGN IS DESIGN AS WELL.