Cemetery Architecture Needs Improvement

13 December 2007 - 7:00am

Some cemeteries are being planned and designed for uses beyond the funeral. But more should be done to improve the banal architecture of the cemetery, according to this article from The Guardian.

"The great achievements of modern architecture have been about bringing light, space and optimism to the built environment - yet these qualities often seem to have bypassed our spaces for mourning and burial. Death is a solemn affair, of course, but more often than not, the banality of its architecture only compounds the grief."

"Even if there's the will to improve the architecture of cemeteries and crematoriums, there's rarely a way. Commissions for new cemeteries are thin on the ground. The living want new houses, new public spaces, new golf courses; they don't want to bother much with the dead."

"At least, that used to be the case. Recently, there have been signs of change."

Full Story: Good grief
Source: The Guardian, December 13, 2007
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One great asset of this part of town, and other older neighborhoods across America, is something as simple as sidewalks, which make it easier to break out of your private sphere by taking a walk and talking to neighbors. That's an impossible dream in many new subdivisions.