Designs on Death
The Architecture of Scottish Crematoria
by Hilary Grainger
£50.00
- Hardback
- E-Book
759 in stock
History
About the Book
Despite seven out of ten people in Scotland choosing cremation, in many ways crematoria are ‘invisible’ buildings, visited only by necessity, and they have not received the attention they deserve. Crematoria present a real challenge for architects. They are paradoxical buildings: religious and secular, functional and symbolic, required to satisfy the practical and emotional needs of all faiths and none.
This book provides architectural ‘biographies’ of Scotland’s thirty-one crematoria, explaining their increasing relevance in contemporary Scottish society and pointing to Scotland’s distinctive contribution to the progress of cremation and the architecture of crematoria. Many leading architects and craftsmen, including Sir Robert Lorimer and Sir Basil Spence, produced designs of great architectural merit, and Scottish local authorities led the way in designing some of the most progressive crematoria in the UK. These singular, often contested buildings, many in magnificent natural landscape settings, reveal a great deal about the complex, changing and distinctive attitudes to death and funeral rituals in Scotland.
The Author
Hilary Grainger
Hilary Grainger is a Dean and Professor of Architectural History at the University of the Arts, London, and Chair of the Victorian Society.Related
-
Paperback | Pub: 22 Sep 2008£20.00
Irish immigrants and their descendants have made a vital contribution to the creation of modern Scotland. This book is the first collection of essays on the Irish in Scotland for almost twenty years, and brings together for the first time all the...
-
Paperback | Pub: 05 Nov 2012£25.00Scotland has played an immense role in European high culture through the centuries, and among its cultural links none have been greater than those with France. This book shows that the links with France stretch back deep into the Middle Ages, and...
-
Paperback | Pub: 20 Aug 2012£25.00For almost a century the islands of Orkney and Shetland were under the rule of the Stewart earls, father and son, a rule remarkable for its infamous reputation in island history. Robert Stewart was an illegitimate son of James V, king of Scots, who...
-
Hardback | Pub: 20 Feb 2017£30.00
Changes in funeral practice provide a lens through which to inspect changes in wider social identity, values and religious beliefs. This book reveals how, in Scotland, as in other societies, death ways and funeral arrangements are closely related to...
