{"id":728807,"date":"2026-06-11T03:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728807\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T03:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:27:14","slug":"st-thomas-more-columbarium-by-simon-pendal-architect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728807\/","title":{"rendered":"St Thomas More Columbarium by Simon Pendal Architect"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Bateman, approximately 10 kilometres east of Fremantle, Western Australia, is a new civic ensemble worthy of attention. Set among a copse of native trees on a small rise at the south-west edge of the St Thomas More Bateman Parish Catholic Church grounds is the St Thomas More Columbarium.<\/p>\n

The parish engaged Simon Pendal Architect after inviting expressions of interest in 2020. The brief was deceptively simple: to create a restful place that allows for the interment of parishioners\u2019 ashes, provides space for quiet reflection and prayer, improves the landscape setting, and responds to the design of the church in a careful and beautiful way without being a copy of the existing building.<\/p>\n

The task of the architect is to complement an urban composition with modesty and avoid competing with what already exists. How might a work satisfy the obligations of a public space at the scale of both the individual and the collective experience? Is the measure of good civic architecture, in fact, found in the care shown to stakeholders \u2013 in this case, the parish, its community, and the families and memories of the interred?<\/p>\n

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Pendal\u2019s scheme, which was first presented to parishioners in early 2021, is so legible and simple that it appears effortless. Three stone \u201ctowers\u201d form a porous enclosure reminiscent of an ancient ruin or walled garden, inviting both human occupancy and the presence of nature. Though not immediately apparent, this cloistered arrangement echoes the monastic planning of the parish\u2019s foundation buildings, designed by architect Iris Rossen in 1986.<\/p>\n

The relationship between the towers adjusts to form a pinwheel, yielding private and discrete entries to each tower from a central brick terrace. Their composition could initially be perceived as random, accentuated by the one-metre fall in the natural ground plane. An inspection of the architects\u2019 drawings, however, reveals that the placement of the towers adheres to the orthogonal grid of the church buildings, and, further, the floor level of the towers is set to the exact midpoint of the rise.<\/p>\n

Each tower is identical. Their architectural language is beautifully crude and singular, made predominantly of a local limestone block with a struck-flush joint. The soft golden colour of the limestone is simpatico with the brickwork of the church. The towers have the austerity of the Church of Santa Maria in Portugal by Alvaro Siza, and their almost cubic figures recall the ossuary at the San Cataldo Cemetery outside Modena, Italy, by Aldo Rossi. (Books containing these buildings are no doubt well-thumbed in the architect\u2019s library.)<\/p>\n

The only ornamentation evident on the facades is a subtle ledge applied to the cross section of three walls. This shelf datum is set at a height relational to a human figure and ties the towers together visually. Fittingly, its profile evokes the bird ledges seen in dovecotes \u2013 compartmentalised, niche-filled structures that house doves and pigeons. (These buildings were themselves historically known as columbaria, from the Latin columba, meaning dove.)<\/p>\n

The fourth facade of each tower is flat, accentuating a deep, shadowy recess and compression at the entry threshold. Refined door joinery of skip-dressed hardwood is embellished with small brass viewing holes similar to those designed by Alvar Aalto for the front door of the Villa Mairea in Finland.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

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Geometries within the towers have been strictly controlled by the architect. A square plan is hollowed-out by an octagonal-shaped volume, which is open to the sky. Its geometry refers to the significance of the eighth day in Christianity, symbolising new creation and eternal life. The 45 degree angle is are also found in the adjacent church, with its nave set on the diagonal of its square plan.<\/p>\n

A single piece of furniture occupies the centre of each columbarium. Fashioned from the trunk of a spotted gum, the stool extends an invitation to sit and linger, establishing an atmosphere of mindful and personal reflection. Its pentagonal shape, explains Pendal, is a reference to the five wounds of Christ, symbolising sacrifice and love.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

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The internal walls of the columbaria are an exercise in careful stone masonry. A matrix of small funerary-urn niches within each expresses a social and non-hierarchical interment. The unadorned surfaces of the top of these walls register sunlight and the colour of the sky above. With its door closed, the atmosphere of this cool and shady room is otherworldly.<\/p>\n

Exiting the towers back into the enclosed garden provides a contrast between dark and light, the raw and the refined, death and life. The canopies of peppermint and almond trees moderate the Western Australian sunlight, and their fine branch forms are cast onto the monumental walls of the towers that dance between them.<\/p>\n

Where architects\u2019 commissions involve the adaptation of sites full of buildings and systems, the condition of tabula plena prompts a careful evaluation of what already exists in the urban field. A study of locus \u2013 evident in urban rhythm, cultural tradition and spatial memory \u2013 offers insights into patterns of occupancy at the scale of a neighbourhood and a street, a building and a room, or even a tower of interment and a garden.<\/p>\n

As our profession attempts to reconcile the life-enhancing, yet often destructive, potential of our activities, it is both moving and reassuring to witness the critical work of architects who practise with care for people and place.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stuart Vokes is an architect and co-founder of Vokes and Peters based in Kurilpa\/Brisbane. His book with Aaron Peters, Migrations from Memory (Canalside Press, 2023) is a collection of essays reflecting on 20 years of collaboration \u2013 a paean to Brisbane, its building traditions and cultural customs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Bateman, approximately 10 kilometres east of Fremantle, Western Australia, is a new civic ensemble worthy of attention.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-728807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}