LA architects design for a new crematorium near Oxted in Surrey has been submitted for planning. It’s bespoke design emerged in response to the sites unique qualities, restrictive site constraints and rural setting. The site, while set within the green belt, is an ecologically poor, open grazing field, bound on all sides by highways. The proposals will transform the site to provide a high-quality facility, sensitive to visitor experience, promote sustainability and support wildlife and biodiversity.
The site strategy is to set the building within an enhanced landscape of woodland, meadows, memorial gardens and wetlands. This will provide privacy and intimacy to the building while allowing large parts of the site to re-wild with native flora and fauna.
The building takes the form of a small cluster of timber buildings connected by a series of extensive green roofs, reflecting the typology of local farmsteads, and utilising natural, sustainable building materials which will allow the building to age and grow with landscape.