Bushey Cemetery / Waugh Thistleton Architects – 【Architectural CAD Drawings】

Architects: Waugh Thistleton Architects
Location: Little Bushey Ln, Bushey WD23 3TP, United Kingdom
Lead Architects: Andrew Waugh, Rachel Crozier, Julen Perez Santisteban
Landscape Architects: J & L Gibbons
Area: 644.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Lewis Kahn, Blake Ezra

Structural Engineer: Elliott Wood Partnership Ltd
Enviromental / M&E Engineer: P3r Engineers Ltd
Quantity Surveyor / Pm: Deacon and Jones LLP
Contractor: Buxton Building Contractors Limited
Rammed Earth Walls Sub Contractor: Earth Structures Group
Larch Timber Glulam Structures Sub Contractor: Constructional Timber
Specialist Oak Joinery Sub Contractor: Batty Joinery
Client: United Synagogue

Text description provided by the architects. Bushey Cemetery is a 16-acre site of outstanding natural beauty situated within the meadows in London’s green belt and is one of the most significant Jewish burial sites in the UK. Our extension of the cemetery was designed around the existing landscape. The buildings are very much part of their setting and, in 60 years when it is anticipated that the cemetery is fully occupied, the buildings will be returned to the earth, and the site to the green belt.

Laid out along a north-south axis the buildings facilitate the movement of mourners. A timber colonnade forms the processional route to the prayer halls, which are entered from the west and exited to the east, before mourners are led towards the graveside.

Two monolithic prayer halls, discretely embedded into a corner of the sloping site, are at the heart of the development. Built of rammed earth, this organic, locally sourced material defines the overall design and was chosen for its symbolic and practical sensitivity to the Jewish faith, echoing the traditional sentiment of the deceased being laid to rest in plain wooden caskets, ‘returning to the earth’.

This is an ancient building method that is natural, sustainable, durable and strong. Left exposed within the ceremonial spaces, the rammed earth creates a sombre, peaceful atmosphere. Oak panelling, larch glulam beams, earthen tiles and Corten steel doors complete the natural, tactile material palette. A linear reed bed and series of ponds and swathes define the edges of the cemetery, facilitating rainwater attenuation and encouraging the biodiversity of Bushey Cemetery’s pastoral setting.

On site for less than two years, the project has been a 10-year journey taken alongside the organisation’s trustees, Jewish community and planners, requiring us to develop an understanding of the processional nature of the Jewish faiths’ practice of burial.