Goodbye Architecture

This book portrays the architecture of Europe’s crematoria. It describes the ways in which architecture can facilitate farewell and commemoration rituals.

In Europe, cremation is a recent but fast-growing tradition. This coincides with the fact that more and more Europeans are making more deliberate choices concerning death and cremation: about places, manners and settings in which to say goodbye, about the meaning of cremation and about the part architecture can play in the process. Looking for answers to these questions, architects Vincent Valentijn and Kim Verhoeven mapped crematoria across Europa. Never before was crematorium architecture portrayed, analysed and provided with background information in this much detail.

Goodbye Architecture offers a wide range of architectural references and starting points for the development of a funerary architecture that is suitable for cremation.

With contributions by Douglas J. Davies, Luigi Bartolomei, Laura Cramwinckel, KAAN architecten, Plan01 architects, PUSHAK AS, Zermani Associati Studio di Architettura, Kris Coenegrachts, Francois Michaud-Nérard, Ola Asp.