Mitford Castle Crematorium is formed around a spatial journey that takes the mourner through the procession, ceremony, mortuary and contemplation to make up the key spaces that allow the mourner to grieve. This journey is expressed through an architectural language of vaulted arches and thick brickwork that is inspired by the pre-existing ruins of Mitford Castle. The language explores a spatial hierarchy that takes mourners through spaces of grandeur or intimacy and a material permanence, which explores the functional and aesthetic requirements of the programme.

The building has been formed from the desire to create the programme as a journey, each stage of the building’s conception informing the next, until the building’s realisation and the journey’s end.