Boyd & Renowden Chapels

Our work on the Boyd and Renowden Chapels at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery is designed to help make the experience of using the spaces focus on the person being celebrated. Clarity has been the primary aim for the architectural interventions and for the restoration works.

Many parts of architect David Cowell-Ham’s building had been obscured, including the courtyard, which had been roofed over, enclosing the columbaria that line the side walls. We embarked with our client on a process of rediscovery, revealing and reinstating the elegant detailing and design motifs.

Image © Trevor Mein

Our brief

The two chapels sit behind a portico in a symmetrical arrangement, originally either side of an open courtyard. The Boyd Chapel is the larger (192 seats), and dates from the opening of the crematorium in March 1936. The Renowden Chapel (96 seats) soon followed. Both are named after former trustees of the cemetery. Deteriorating fabric and a need to upgrade building services and amenity triggered this refurbishment project.

Details

Client

Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (SMCT)

Date

2015 - 2016

Status

Completed

Original Architect

David Cowell-Hamm

Location

Melbourne/Naarm

Traditional Owners

Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong people

Image © Trevor Mein

Our response

The multi-denominational crematorium chapels are dignified and formal, with a new warm timber-lined Atrium gathering space between them — united in approach to the use of natural light and acoustics to achieve a gentle atmosphere.
Cowell-Ham used a segmented arch detail for the door and window openings that evokes a devotional context without referencing a specific religion. He intended the use of natural light and we have followed his lead in focusing on how to make the lighting and sound feel natural. Using modern acoustic technology, we wanted to make it possible for someone to speak unamplified in the chapels. All visual distractions have been removed. Warm brown bespoke carpet has been installed in place of the original parquetry floors, which were not in good condition.

The timber-lined Atrium is full of subtle light. At the end of a service, mourners move from the chapels literally into the light at the heart of the building. The Atrium is located on the footprint of the former grassed area of the courtyard, and the natural light it captures spills into the side cloisters, where the columbaria that still line the walls feel like they are outside once again.

Before Image

A light weight arcaded structure running the length of the primary façade concealed the classical portico and chapel entries without providing the extent of canopy needed to support the ceremonial aspects of the brief.

Image © Trevor Mein

"The Boyd and Renowden Chapels are spaces stripped to their essence—silent, unadorned, and pure. They allow nothing to distract from private communion with memory, grief, and reflection. Here, the absence of ornament becomes presence.

Having stood in these Chapels during farewell services, I have felt the weight of loss settle into the quiet. The stillness doesn’t rush; it lets time stretch, invites thoughts to unfold, and holds the unsaid between its walls. Then comes the Atrium—a space of transition. Stepping into it is a shift, from shadow to light, from reflection to renewal. It is the moment when grief pauses, when the air changes, when life gently calls you back."

KAI CHEN, DIRECTOR AND FOUNDING PRINCIPAL

Image © Trevor Mein

During Construction

Image © Trevor Mein

Before Works

Image © Trevor Mein

Architecturally, the Atrium is about the quality of the top light. The roof is composed of two three-pin arches constructed in lightweight steel channels, supported by the existing chapel walls. Light entering through skylights in the upper roof is diffused by the perspex infill between the timbers of the interior skin, which continues past the Atrium walls to form the ceiling of the side cloisters.

The front facade of the building has also been stripped back to its original 1930s appearance. To provide shelter for arriving caskets, we designed a minimal steel and glass structure that uses the segmented arch for its form. Everything is pared back to allow the original portico its visual impact. Iron gates based on the original design of the courtyard gates have been installed in the main entrance.