London-based architecture studio Waugh Thistleton has unveiled the final designs for Bushey Cemetery, a scheme for United Synagogues. The development has recently started on site and today the practice has released images and a fly-through video of the updated scheme.
A sensitive and informed design, Bushey Cemetery’s main ceremonial space will be created from rammed earth, an ancient and sustainable building technique that uses a natural locally sourced raw material.
Rammed earth allows for a strong and durable structure that is simple to construct and thermally massive – meaning that the space will store heat in the cold and stay cool in the summer.
Waugh Thistleton’s plans also include two service buildings that will be created with a timber structure and finish. The landscape surrounding the religious buildings will be designed as an ecological response to the site’s Greenbelt location. Plans by landscape architects J and L Gibbons include swales, weirs and ponds.