The new cemetery extension in Karlslunde offers a unique blend of a traditional burial space and a serene park experience. It honors the cemetery’s purpose while inviting visitors to connect with nature in a peaceful, green setting.
The park cemetery has been designed to seamlessly blend into the open landscape and integrate naturally with the village structure. The vision has been to create a green, nature-inspired cemetery, forming a cohesive, lush landscape with vegetation that reflects the region’s characteristic plant life, including hedgerows with flowers, berries, and wild-growing plants. The cemetery has been arranged as a green, nature-dominated space, where individual burial areas have been conceived as small groves of trees and shrubs. These groves have been framed by perimeter planting, providing a natural barrier to shield the cemetery from neighbouring properties to the south and the open fields to the north. Within, the groves have enclosed a central vista, connecting the open landscape to the west with a view of Karlslunde Church’s tower.
During the first phase, the initial three groves have been established, along with burial spaces, communal graves, roads, paths, an entrance plaza, resting areas, parking, and a materials storage area for cemetery operations. Site preparation has also been carried out for a future building in the northeastern part of the grounds, which is expected to house service facilities and consultation rooms.
The nature-focused design approach has strengthened the contrast between the village and the surrounding landscape and reflects a strategic decision to expand the cemetery’s range of burial options. By introducing more natural and landscape-oriented burial sites, the extension has aimed to meet increasing demand while complementing the more maintained and traditionally designed areas of the old cemetery. The overarching concept for the new cemetery extension has thus incorporated both historical and modern elements. It has told a story of the region’s agricultural past, the star-shaped land division, the village structure, and the scale transition from the intimate and close to the large and open landscape.
In this new cemetery, historical elements have been combined with modern principles. The cultivated landscape has given way to a natural setting, where lushness, biodiversity, and sustainability have been prioritized, enriching the site with identity and meaningful experiences.
Landscape architecture: LYTT Architecture
Year completed: 2023-2024
Photo credits: LYTT Architecture
