Waugh Thistleton Architects

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Bushey Cemetery 1
Bushey Cemetery 2
Bushey Cemetery 3
Bushey Cemetery 4
Bushey Cemetery 5

Location

Hertfordshire

Status

Completed
2017

Client

United Synagogues

Budget

Undisclosed

RIBA workstages

Concept to Completion

Awards

EU Mies Award 2019 (Nominee)

Stirling Prize 2018 (Shortlisted)

RIBA National Award 2018 

RIBA East Award 2018

WAF 2017 Best Completed Religious Building

AJ Community & Faith 2017 (Shortlisted)

Size

670 m2

We worked closely with the United Synagogue on this project to enlarge the UK’s most significant Jewish cemetery, a 16-acre site of outstanding natural beauty in London’s Green Belt, and to create two new prayer halls.

Approach

The process of the Jewish funeral defined the design for the extended site; we carefully landscaped each point in the processional ceremony to provide contemplative settings and views, harnessing the site’s established trees as key pivot points.

Design

The prayer halls, discretely embedded into a low corner of the sloping landscape, are constructed from solid rammed earth walls – an ancient building method that is at once natural and sustainable and durable and strong.

Connected by a cloistered timber colonnade, the earthen prayer halls are lined in English Oak, with sections of the rammed earth left exposed in the ceremonial spaces. Corten steel doors complement the natural material palette, and the calm internal environments are accentuated with subtle, low lighting.

A linear reed bed park, including ponds, weirs and swails, facilitates water attenuation and enhances biodiversity, whilst providing the halls with a tranquil waters edge setting.