Cemetery design should be both beautiful and functional. The cemetery layout should also be easy to navigate.
Cemetery planners can help with the development of a master plan for new and existing cemeteries. This can include planning for expansion and new sections.
Today, space efficiency is a key consideration for many. This has resulted in practices such as vertical burial and urn sharing.
Master Plan
A cemetery master plan provides management with a roadmap for the future. It is an essential part of a cemetery’s operations. It includes due diligence work like a business and financial plan, analysis of sales trends, community demographics, and a survey of the site including topography, drainage, vegetation and zoning.
It is important that a master plan be flexible and evolve over time. Many issues can arise that require a change in direction. This could include interment trend shifts, facility repair/replacement costs, changing market demand and aging demographics.
It is also important to differentiate your cemetery from others. Cemeteries along highways all look the same and often lack the distinction that is necessary to create a memorable place for visitors. A beautiful landscape with unique features will help to do this. It will also make it easier for visitors to navigate through the cemetery. Other ways to enhance your cemetery design include harboring lands to reduce water runoff, and improving circulation and wayfinding on the property.
Landscape and Architecture
A cemetery landscape that honors the past and speaks of the future must be thoughtfully designed. Decorative features that accentuate specific burial locations, different shades of green that cumulatively give the space its identity and a careful choice of species of flowering trees are a few of the things to consider in cemetery design.
A monumental entrance is important as it marks the passage into a sacred and significant space. We use plantings and architectural or landscape elements to magnify this entrance into a focal point for the cemetery.
Mourners often leave flowers on columbarium walls and this need is taken into account by the design of these structures. Some of the newer designs of these walls incorporate a clip beside each plaque for this purpose or have spaces to hold a posy. This allows mourners to leave their memorials without clogging the wall or creating a maintenance problem for the cemetery. It also respects their desire to say goodbye and let go.
Accessibility
The physical location of a cemetery is important, but equally so are the paths that people take throughout the property. This means ensuring that all areas of the property are accessible to those with mobility issues or who may use wheelchairs.
The mapping process is the primary tool for achieving this goal, but it takes time and careful consideration. Cemeteries are often built in difficult to develop locations, such as hillside slopes or flood prone areas. Creating maps that are accurate, up to date and easy to read is critical for a cemetery that wants to engage with the public.
A cemetery’s proximity to a home can also impact accessibility, as can regulations governing how frequently people can visit. Fortunately, there are many technological options that can make saying goodbye to loved ones easier and less stressful for those who face physical limitations. These can range from audio and video systems to virtual visits with family members who can’t travel.
Signage
Cemeteries must be well signposted to allow visitors to navigate the site and locate grave sites. This can involve a range of signage from entrance signs to maps and panels that may also include interpretive themes, legends or content.
Directional road signs indicating routes to heritage sites are important but can only aid route decisions and route monitoring (elements of the wayfinding process) and do not necessarily alert people to the presence of a cemetery. The identification signs shown here for the large killing and mass grave complex north of Drohobych, and a proposal for a cemetery at Babyn Yar in Kyiv, are intended to address this issue; they incorporate similar or identical design elements for symbol, typeface and layout as used on the directional road signs.
Our signs are manufactured from recycled plastic, making them durable and vandal-proof. They are also highly weather resistant and have a long life expectancy, especially when the signs are protected from direct sunlight.