Metropole’s Crematorium, Rennes Building, French Architecture Project, Images
Rennes Metropole’s Crematorium
Building Development in France – design by PLAN01 architects
20 Aug 2019
Metropole’s Crematorium
Design: PLAN01 architects
Location: Rennes, France
Metropole’s Crematorium

Largely marginal in the 1970?s, cremation has experienced a slow but regular progress for the last 20 years, reaching a 29% rate today. In 2030, cremation will become the main funeral practice in France, outreaching the symbolic 50% rate. This true reversal of traditions underlines the progessive spreading of cremation, both geographically, outside major urban centres, and socially, religious and older people are less opposed to cremation.
From a free thinker ceremonial to a mass practice

If cremation is becoming a major practice on a strict mumber basis, some of its aspects are still influenced by former perceptions. In many ways, it is still evocating the roughness and the severity of a ceremonial for free thinkers and reprobate people. The difficulty of combinating cremation with a truly respectful and solemn ceremony still remains. It is particularly perceptible in the architectural layout of crematoriums. They are not well conceived, not very appropriate to this difficult and particular situation; they make the mourning process even more complicated and painful.

In the continuity of what have been made in Northern Europe, a reflection on the architectural qua...