The final project of second year studio asked students to design a crematorium, a place where the deceased are cremated. The project site was located between the civic center and industrial manufacturing areas along a linear lake in Baton Rouge. Given our studio’s emphasis on design process, materials theory, site inventory, and the analysis and impacts of place, the unfamiliarity of the crematorium’s use would help students focus on the studio’s themes rather than the building itself.

With the subject of death so strongly associated with a crematorium, finality tends to be the common theme people think about. In my own personal experience I’ve noticed that the passing of a friend or family member, however discomforting it may be, eventually emphasizes that I am still alive and that I should appreciate life more fully. In this project I wanted to make a building that quietly acknowledge that death is approached cautiously because of its intense finality, and that people deal with the subject matter better when it’s anticipated than when it’s abrupt. This intention is translated in my design through several strategies: the orientation of heavy walls, the curving approach into the building itself, the pockets of space along the approach path which offer pause, the continuity of the roof plane over the cellular support buildings, and so on. Swirling into the building from the east toward the west, the visitor undergoes a series of long paths focused on a strong boundary between the north and south side of the building. Each path has a shorter reprieve than the next as the visitor gets closer to the main room of the building where the remains are presented. After gradually approaches the final space, the visitor must cross a previously established boundary condition in order to enter the main room. Bathrooms, lounges, viewing platforms and the like are all accessible from suspended catwalks hanging in this boundary space. Finally, there is a long walkway on the west side of the building which ejects the visitor into a garden space. Hopefully the visitor experiences a pleasant sensation from either a cool breeze off the lake, the warmth of the setting sun, or the scent of the flowers in the garden, as they exit the building.