Between a mountain and a small lake in Gifu lies the Meiso no Mori Municipal Funeral Hall. The Funeral Hall takes its name, Meiso no Mori, from the Japanese words meaning “forest of meditation.”
With a curving roof that measures 20 centimeters (7.87 inches) thick, the crematorium echoes its the forms of its mountainous surroundings beyond, and the billowing clouds above. The troughs of the roof end in a dozen tapered columns, which also serve as drainage, while the crests allow bulbous spatial elements containing simple programmatic functions to form beneath them.
