Newlands Cross Lawn Cemetery
The new Cemetery at Newlands Cross will provide for the burial and cremation requirements for west Dublin into the new millenium. The new Cemetery forms part of an integrated open space development comprising of 140 acres of parkland, playing pitches, an ornamental lake, and wildflower meadows. The central theme of the landscape composition is the integration of the functions of the cemetery into the activities of the park and the wider community Cemeteries have a long association with parks; the first public parks were cemeteries, such as Mount Auburn in Boston. This notion of the cemetery as part of the activities of a community and society as a whole underpins the design. In creating the landscape composition for the cemetery, the concept of axiality and orientation were considered in detail in relation to the new park. The traditional method of village cemeteries is along an east-west axis, aligning the body/soul with the setting and rising sun, is a central ordering element of the design for the burial plots. This concept of a connection to the processes of day & night, light and shadow, pervades the design
Access to the new parkland area is from the existing roundabout along the southern boundary off Belgard Road. This access also serves as an entrance driveway into the cemetery for arrival /set down and car parking. This car park can be used for both park visitors and cemetery users. The car park is off-set along a curving access drive, set in parkland, flanked by weeping silver lime.
The approach to the cemetery buildings informs the driveway with a sense of serenity and has a processional quality. Around the set down area and adjacent to the administrative buildings and chapel , there are garden areas which in time will contain memorial areas for burial urns. These small scale areas are closely related to the buildings and serve as quiet, tranquil spaces for mourners attending funerals. These spaces have been configured with broken circles, playing against the strong lines of the buildings. The main access into the cemetery is through these garden areas, and they act as a transitional space between the parkland and the building areas. The layout of the burial plots of the cemetery follows a traditional east-west orientation. The individual burial plots themselves are defined by single headstones using Irish stone only- granite, limestone, sandstone etc. set within a recessed plinth. The pedestrian circulation pathways are constituted in a bonded, golden coloured gravel, or “hoggin’.
Project Info.
- Location: Newlands Cross, Belgard, Dublin 24
- Client: Dublin Cemeteries Committee
- Size approx.: 50 Ha.
- Year of Project: 1999 - 2001
- Project Team
- Director: Mr. John Ward
- Associate: Mr. Mark Boyle
- Team Members
- Engineering: Clifton Scannell Emerson
- Architecture: A+D Wejchert
- Landscape Works: Shaffrey Landscapes Ltd.