Funerary Chapel in the Rural Context

Natural daylight and views, monumentality, atmosphere, meaningful sequencing of spaces and sustainability were the themes present in the Chapel design, each manifesting in various aspects of the proposal.

What interested me and gave me the most inspiration to pursue these themes was the site visit to the Llyn Brianne Dam and its surroundings, assessing its opportunities and constraints as well as taking in its atmosphere. The sites natural topography and characteristics urged daylight to be a main design driver, whilst digesting the Funeral Landscape brief we were given gave rise to the other themes.
The task of designing a Funeral Chapel is important; Chapel spaces call for an air of reverence to honour the dead and I believed having daylight as a main design aspect fulfilled that requirement.

Beginning with contextual research to form the basis of my proposal, it was only really in the testing aspect of the design process where the scheme started to make sense and individual pieces of my ideas started to fit together.
The design process called for various testing through a plethora of methods from concept modelling, drawing up differing organisational strategies and using digital means to test sunlight lux levels and shadows achievable within my design. Without this testing part, the proposals themes would likely seem diluted and less potent, an example of this being the idea of direct sunlight being necessary for certain aspects of the scheme and testing where it would be optimal to place them in relation to the other spaces in the proposal.

To conclude, this funerary chapel in the rural context was a demanding but nevertheless an enjoyable scheme to design. I was very content with the concept I imagined and bringing it into fruition was rewarding. The aim to create a scheme that possessed a Positive Net Impact to the site was also important and I believe was achieved through use of sustainable and, when possible, local materials.