Charlottenlund cemetery

On the outskirts of Trondheim lies Charlottenlund cemetery – a faith-neutral place that is imbued with a poetic character and exudes an atmosphere that anchors the cemetery in its location between city and country, between mountain and fjord.

Extensive project with a poetic character

Inaugurated in 2020, Charlottenlund cemetery involved the development of a nine-hectares of agricultural land to a completely new and faith-neutral cemetery around six kilometres from central Trondheim.

The project involves a number of elements including memorial avenues, a bell tower, areas for both traditional coffin burial and cremation, urn burial areas, a processional route, as well as fences, gates, lighting, art, and vegetation. These are all embraced and anchored by gabion walls with hand-laid trondgemit, a locally quarried stone that is almost white in colour.

Client: Ecclesiastical Council in Trondheim
Place: Trondheim, Norway
Status: Completed in 2020
Area: 9 hectares
Photo: Kristoffer Wittrup, Alexander de Cuveland & White

The faith-neutral place that is imbued with a poetic character and exudes an atmosphere that anchors the cemetery in its location between city and country, between mountain and fjord.

The four main elements of Åkerholmen, the processioaln route, the burial area, and Alle savnedes plass provide the framework and identity of the cemetery. They’re linked as a single composition, with the aim of ensuring that Charlottenlund cemetery sensitivity to the natural context, the qualities of the landscape, and visitors’ needs for closeness and reverence.

The processional route has no beginning or end. It is an axis that clearly connects the burial areas and subtly anchors them in the rural surroundings. It reflects the transition that occurs when someone dies, from human temporal existence to all-encompassing timelessness, from culture to nature.

Alle savnedes plass is reserved for those who have lost someone or are involved in difficult events. The area is open to everyone and designed to accommodate both collective and individual grief.

Its dignity and design mean that it is also very well suited as a gathering place for cultural events and celebrations, as a meditative refuge for people making a visit, or for a pre-school class on an excursion.

Markus Magnusson, lead landscape architect

Åkerholmen has been carefully converted into a place that grounds its visitors, with a number of memorial spaces that derive their expression from their surroundings, enclosed between existing, tall pine trees. The site also features several different types of pre-positioned gravestones made of wood, bronze, and granite.

Different spaces and places for burial have been created with the help of forest curtains and larch hedges to give this large facility a more human scale. The forest curtains have been designed with a mix of carefully chosen tree species and low planting that will eventually be formed into recreational forests for both graves and for contemplation.

In 2012, the Ecclesiastical Council in Trondheim announced an international competition for the design of the faith-neutral cemetery. A Swedish team consisting of White Arkitekter and Landskapsgruppen won the competition in 2013, with their proposal that had the motto “Alle savnedes plass”. This was followed by further refinement, planning, and construction, with completion in 2020 when the cemetery was inaugurated.

Since then, Charlottenlund cemetery has come into use and become a destination attracting many visitors.

Contact & Team

Markus Magnusson

Landscape architect

+46 766 39 47 44

Send mail

Alexandra Hagen

Andreas Milsta

Josef Wiberg

Fredrik Larsson

Jake Ford

Fredrik G Nilsson

Anna Eklund

Please share!

Related projects

All Projects

{{ project.excerpt }}
Read more