The new Crematorium in Stockholm, Sweden aims at creating an extension of the existing facility designed by Gunnar Asplund that will not interrupt the building’s woodland backdrop. The new volume is integrated into a small hill and intervenes into the landscape with three paths that cross at the centre of the new architectural structure. 

The true genius of Asplund’s design for The Woodland Cemetery was to evolve an unprecedented symbiosis of landscape and architecture integrated into a single composition. Rather than imposing an ideal geometry onto the site, he allowed the natural landscape to evolve into a sacred and symbolic architecture of light and darkness leading the mourners from the dense forest of columns to the open fields under the celestial vault. Following this concept, the crematorium roofs are simply materialised as crusts of undergrowth bent towards the skies, covered with various forms of grasses, berry bushes, and flowers. Each roof forms a sloping piece of meadow facing towards each corner of the world. The varying orientation: east, west, north, south, offers different conditions for four different Swedish woodland ground cover biotopes.