Our Buildings
"Incredibly beautiful, wonderful buildings. Some people who attended the funeral will probably choose it themselves they were so touched by the whole ceremony and burial."
(From a letter received December 2009)
Our buildings were designed by Graham Brown, and located within the woodland setting by John Dejardin, our Director of Design and Development. Graham's inspiration behind the reciprocal frame design is outlined below.
'"The original thought guiding the design process of the buildings was 'What is the inner journey that we humans make as we honour and release the body of a loved one to the grave?'
It became clear that as we made that journey there were moments where we would naturally pause, reflect, take stock and prepare for the next steps and that the buildings needed to be stopping off places for those moments on that journey to the grave. Places where people would have time to adjust from the normal state of everyday life to the heightened emotional and spiritual consciousness to which we are drawn by meeting the loss of someone we love.
I therefore cognised of 7 gateways on this journey, all of which carry the circular motif, which are represented within the park in the following ways:
Gate 1 - The Gateway at the roadside.
This is a gateway between worlds. Whilst travelling in the car to the ceremony the busyness of the world intrudes, but as we pass through the gate we enter a consecrated world designed to offer shelter and protection for deeper emotions and realities.
Gate 2 – The Entrance to the Gathering Hall
The Gathering Hall is where we embrace the social world of family and friends. We say hello to those we might not have seen for years, shed tears, tell stories, reminisce and commiserate. As we do this however, the tall windows facing the courtyard let us know where our next part of the journey resides.
Gate 3 – The Exit of the Gathering Hall to the Courtyard
As we exit the Gathering Hall, the sweeping roof of the Woodland Hall before our eyes clearly states that this is a sacred place. As we step through these doors we know we are on our way to moments where we will be moved to a deeper place in our being; beyond the social to a deeper realm where love and loss are given space to exist. The courtyard provides a little time for us to breath free air and to make this internal journey.
Gate 4 – The Entrance to the Woodland Hall.
These twin double doors with their circular windows will finally have memorial stained glass fitted which will obscure the interior of the hall to the approaching eye, and offer a protection to this sacred space. The form of the Woodland Hall is to evoke the terrible, but necessary, awareness of separation. That the love we have for a person must now be released from the body which we have known. That we must allow our love to transform and allow the body to journey to its resting place. It is the relationship of the next two gateways in the Woodland Hall that evokes this consciousness.
Gate 5 - The Glass Skylight in the atrium of the Reciprocal Frame - The Heaven Gate
Natural light streams through this fifth gateway - the skylight. It almost draws us toward it. It reminds us that we are more than the body. That the life we are animates the body, and that for the deceased this life has gone and it is on its journey, however we may understand that reality. For those left behind, this gate draws us to the heart where love.…. the unbounded openness to another, must cross another threshold - where our love travels to meet the unbounded. This gate is the invitation to that journey.
Gate 6 - The Glass Exit doors of the Woodland Hall.
This glass gateway in a glass wall is clearly the gateway to the grave in the woodland, whose quiet and natural presence is as much a part of the building as its walls or roof. The body we have so loved is going through these doors to its woodland grave and our love must loosen its attachment to that body and we must allow ourselves to grieve and allow its loss.
The relationship of these gateways, one above……. a gateway to the eternal and one below……. the gateway to the earthly grave, support all involved in the ceremony by mirroring our internal journey of loss and love in the form and energetic design of these buildings.
Gate 7 - The Grave
The ceremony and time in the Woodland Hall is to prepare our hearts and minds for the sight of our loved one being placed within the grave to return to the earth. This finality brings us to meet the reality of loss. From this place we return alone, without the human presence of the loved one. We return to the Gathering Hall, back to the realm of