Bunurong Memorial Park

Aspect Studios & BVN worked together to design and redevelop the unique 101-hectare memorial park.  It’s an ­innovative, state-of-the-art cemetery which caters for all the different ethnic communities that make up the surrounding population of the broader Dandenong area.

Peter Richards (BVN) and his team were keen to specify Australian materials, plant species and timbers throughout the complex, there are distinctive native plants combined with rusted steel walls, earth paths and raised walkways alongside the lake.

Laros in conjunction with Western Commercial Windows (WCW) was contracted to engineer, supply and install the timber curtain walls used throughout the chapels and function rooms.

All three chapels were given thermally broken & insulated timber curtain wall systems.  When viewed from the exterior the façade is emphasized by the reddish hues of Queensland mixed forest species (glulam mullions).  From the interior the timber mullions characterise the type of warmth one would expect to see in a modern chapel; there is an atmospheric warmth about wood and when combined with aluminium and glass you have an optimal glazing system unit.

While the timber mullions and transoms can be laminated out of any timber species and engineered to predetermined structural specifications, on this occasion the architect chose a timber which provided a ‘reverential’ background to the surrounding landscaped gardens.