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Crematorium Thun 2015–2020 Public Building City of Thun Thun, Switzerland Competition, 1st Prize
Sarah Birchler, Elisabeth Hobiger-Feichtner, Sean Hoskyn, Jennifer Schedlbauer, Markus Schietsch, Steffen Sperle, Markus Weissenmayer CHF 15.7 Mio.

The new crematorium building is a freestanding, single-storey pavilion embedded in the natural park landscape of the cemetery. Rather than being spatially separated, the building opens up to the surrounding landscape and draws the exterior space into the interior. The public areas of the building are thus understood as an integral part of the cemetery park.

The building is structured in concentric layers of space, which are increasingly open to the public from inside to outside. A covered forecourt with two staggered rows of tapering concrete columns forms the outermost spatial layer. These vertical columns echo the surrounding oak trees, open the crematorium to the cemetery park and create an arrival area for visitors.


In the outer layer of the central core, which forms the centre of the crematorium, are further rooms accessible to visitors. Along the entrance hall are the reception area with administration office, meeting room, control room, the furnace system, the furnace antechamber and rooms for relatives. Viewing rooms are located on either side of the building along the public corridors and are thus spatially related to the surrounding cemetery.

Seating niches outside the viewing rooms offer visitors a place to pause and view out into the surrounding landscape of trees. This is a place of peace and contemplation that is strongly related to the green landscape of the cemetery.

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