The St Thomas More Columbarium, a new civic ensemble in Western Australia, is a testament to thoughtful architecture and thoughtful design. It's a place that allows for the interment of ashes, provides space for quiet reflection and prayer, and improves the landscape setting. The architect, Simon Pendal, was tasked with creating a restful space that complements the existing church and avoids competing with it. The result is a legible and simple design that appears effortless, with three stone "towers" forming a porous enclosure reminiscent of an ancient ruin or walled garden. The towers are identical, with a beautiful, crude architectural language made predominantly of a local limestone block. The soft golden colour of the limestone is simpatico with the brickwork of the church, and the towers have the austerity of the Church of Santa Maria in Portugal by Alvaro Siza. The only ornamentation evident on the facades is a subtle ledge applied to the cross section of three walls, which ties the towers together visually. The fourth facade of each tower is flat, accentuating a deep, shadowy recess and compression at the entry threshold. The internal walls of the columbaria are an exercise in careful stone masonry, with a matrix of small funerary-urn niches within each expressing a social and non-hierarchical interment. The atmosphere of this cool and shady room is otherworldly when the door is closed. The single piece of furniture in the centre of each columbarium, a stool made from the trunk of a spotted gum, extends an invitation to sit and linger, establishing an atmosphere of mindful and personal reflection. The pentagonal shape of the stool is a reference to the five wounds of Christ, symbolising sacrifice and love. 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. The St Thomas More Columbarium is a thoughtful and engaging design that offers a contrast between dark and light, the raw and the refined, death and life. It's a place that invites both human occupancy and the presence of nature, and it's a testament to the critical work of architects who practise with care for people and place.
