Design to remember

Robert Preece -- Interior Design, 12/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

A small Norwegian city above the Arctic Circle, coastal Bodø seems a more likely place for migrating moose than innovative architecture. But not if Lusparken Arkitekter has anything to say about it. The firm's Salten Crematorium is the product of an invitation-only competition run by the Bodø communal government, which had charged participants with creating a design to accommodate cremation facilities as well as a space for funerals of all faiths.

The 8,600-square-foot single-story structure addresses those two requirements, with cremation facilities, a ceremony room, and administration at ground level. Technical areas are predominantly below grade.

Upon entering a gravel driveway, hearses are directed to the administration gateway. Mourners, meanwhile, pass through a foyer to the 1,200-square-foot ceremony room, a double-height white-plastered cube. "The whiteness and height stress the importance of the event," says principal Kjell Kristiansen.

There are no religious symbols in the airy ceremony room, with its floor of white oak and Carl-Evert Ekström's simple beech seating for 120 people. Instead, the room's uplifting quality derives from dual sunlit exposures. The entry wall, which faces west, is built of glass and acoustic panels of Norway spruce; standing in front of the east-facing glazed wall is a white plastered plane with stained glass set into square niches. "The east-west orientation aligns with the rise and fall of the sun—and the start and end of the life cycle," explains Kristiansen. During the dark winters, outdoor spotlights replace the sun's illumination.

The cremation facilities occupy a separate 1,600-square-foot structure, divided from the ceremony room by a double wall of plaster, brick, and aluminum panels. An 8-foot-tall aluminum smokestack helps balance the building's asymmetry as well as dispersing exhaust—though the Norwegian government's strict filtering regulations ensure that smoke is never visible.

What was it like for Kristiansen, whose previous projects include schools, residences, and a courthouse, to design a crematorium? "It was tough," he recalls. "The ceremonies that take place here are grave and emotional. We had to respect those experiences."

From top: In the 20-foot-high ceremony room at the Salten Crematorium in Bodø, Norway, Carl-Evert Ekström's beech chairs face artist Wenche Gulbransen's plaster wall with stained-glass insets; the floor is white oak. Principal Kjell Kristiansen topped the asymmetrical structure with a concrete roof to minimize the noise of planes from Bodø Airport; the cremation facilities are on the left. The west-facing entry wall is glass fitted with acoustic panels of Norway spruce.

CHAIRS: ALBIN I. HYSSNA. PENDANT FIXTURES: THORN LIGHTING GROUP WORLDWIDE. FLOORING: NORDBY GULV. ENGINEERS: JARL HELLAND (STRUCTURAL); KNUT F. JENSSEN (ELECTRICAL); THEORELLS (HVAC). LANDSCAPE CONTRACTOR: SVEIN ERIK JOHANSEN. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: SELMER SKANSKA.