Cemetery Pavilions Brasschaat

Brasschaat, Belgia

Photo © Fred Debrock

Drawing © Compagnie O. Architects

arkkitehdit: Compagnie O. Architects

Location: Brasschaat, Belgia
Year: 2021

The service buildings on all four of Brasschaat’s cemeteries are in need of an update. They fulfil the double function of reception and storage space and therefore have no ceremonial value. We translated their supportive role into two archetypical ‘garden shed’ pavilions – a form so universally recognisable, it doesn’t impose any new meaning onto an already very specific and burdened context.

To transcend the simplicity of the form and the banality of the shed, we focus on emphasizing their non-presence. The facade is either reflecting or lighting up the surrounding context.

On a bare plot of land on one of the cemeteries, we developed a new ceremonial canopy for farewell rituals. The canopy is positioned on the lower fault line of the site where the topography of the site itself creates a sense of shelter. The canopy in its turn relinks the forest in front to the meadows behind.