![Crematory in Basel / Architekturbüro Garrigues Maurer - Brick, Facade, Courtyard](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5a7c/62d4/f197/cc81/4500/043b/medium_jpg/KRE_15.jpg?1518101198)
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Architects: Architekturbüro Garrigues Maurer
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:Rasmus Norlander, Ariel Huber
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Manufacturers: IFZW Zwickau, Petersen Tegl
![Crematory in Basel / Architekturbüro Garrigues Maurer - Image 4 of 28](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5a7c/6280/f197/cc6e/0f00/06d3/newsletter/KRE_11.jpg?1518101113)
Text description provided by the architects. Located not far from the centre of Basel, directly at the border to Germany, close to the Rhine lies Switzerland’s biggest cemetery. The so-called Hörnli is a place of mourning and devotion, which at the same time is a sensitive and precisely cultivated garden. It is placed on the border in an ambiguous sense. Likewise, it is a multicultural place that reflects our being together before and after death.
![](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5a7c/60ad/f197/cc6e/0f00/06b5/newsletter/1_200_PLAN_GROUND_FLOOR.jpg?1518100644)
The cemetery was finished in the 30s and its existing layout and buildings are shaped by a straight classical geometrical order embedded in nature. This urban layout gives consolation in form of rationality and clarity. The new crematory, finished mid-2017 subordinates itself to these found patterns. It forms a background for both the landscape and the act of saying farewell. It creates a solemn experience, ecumenical and easily accessible to all.
![Crematory in Basel / Architekturbüro Garrigues Maurer - Image 2 of 28](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5a7c/6260/f197/cc81/4500/0438/medium_jpg/KRE_09.jpg?1518101082)
Following the main alley, the building appears as an independent volume in line with the existing mortuary building. A new entrance-court forms a mediating space between the existing and new structures. From there you enter an enclosed courtyard providing an intimate, semi-public space only available to the respective mourners allowing a slow approach to the final act. This sequence of spaces ending in the cremation room is followed by a volumetric development in height. The building rises step by step from the lowest level of the entrance to its highest part, the free-standing chimney. These movements guide the families by creating a succession of spaces that ends and starts with the buildings one big open window opening towards the sky.
![Crematory in Basel / Architekturbüro Garrigues Maurer - Windows, Beam](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5a7c/62e0/f197/cc6e/0f00/06f4/medium_jpg/KRE_16.jpg?1518101209)
![](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5a7c/60a1/f197/cc81/4500/0430/newsletter/1_200_LONGITUDINAL_SECTION.jpg?1518100634)
![Crematory in Basel / Architekturbüro Garrigues Maurer - Beam](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5a7c/62fa/f197/cc81/4500/043d/medium_jpg/KRE_18.jpg?1518101236)
Furthermore, the new crematory is characterized by the picture of simultaneity. The industrial process of incineration and the emotional exception of mourning. The translation is a building with a concrete structure and a brick skin. Concrete is a rough, industrial product, the brick is a hand-made and hand-laid material. The latter stretches around the building and opens to light and air, defining a porous border that is open and closed at the same time.
![Crematory in Basel / Architekturbüro Garrigues Maurer - Image 6 of 28](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5a7c/61e1/f197/cc81/4500/0434/newsletter/KRE_01.jpg?1518100954)