Stuifduin - Field

Where a cemetery has no explicit religious symbols, the quiet power of nature takes their place. In Lommel, a "primordial landscape" of pine woods, heathland and sand is restored around the crematorium, offering balance, peace and a modest, self-evident presence.

At a cemetery that lacks explicit religious symbols, the universal power of nature replaces the sacral. Nature provides not only an equilibrium, as a biotope that is permanently in balance with itself, but also peace, by its self-evident and modest presence. The proposed landscape design is characterised by the search for an untouched "primordial landscape". A restoration project will be initiated, aimed at recreating the natural balance between pine woods, heathland and sandy landscape. The landscape enters into a dialogue with the human interventions in the form of footpaths, exterior spaces and the architecture.

The ceremony actually commences in the park. A path cuts through the landscape and takes the visitors to another world, away from the secular.  The lowered path changes the viewer's perspective. The relief and the landscape are experienced in a different way. This experience coerces the visitor into humbleness vis-à-vis nature.