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Talk:Woodland cemetery

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Is the concept of woodland cemetery in the US this associated with ecological thinking? Not so in Europe, really. Se Skogskyrkogården. Not knowing this page already existed, I wrote a text for this title - I paste it below.

A woodland cemetery is a cemetery where the original landscape with existing trees has been given much influence on the landscape architecture of the cemetary, and where the graves are fitted in among the trees. Often, a woodland cemetary is designed so that the landscape is given a more prominent position and the buildings of the cemetary, such as the chapel, is given less. Among famous woodland cemetaries are the Munich Waldfriedhof of 1907 in Germany, often mentioned as the first woodland cemetary, and Skogskyrkogården outside of Stockholm in Sweden which is declared a world heritage site.

The wellknown woodland cemetaries are the large ones constructed by well-known architects; however, there are also several woodland cemetaries in northernmost Sweden that outdates both Skogskyrkogården and the German Waldfriedhof style. The woodland cemetery in Karesuando in the northernmost municipality of the country, Kiruna Municipality, was consecrated in 1816.

References

* Constant, Caroline: The Woodland Cemetary: Toward a Spiritual Landscape. Byggförlaget 1994, ISBN 917988060 esp. chapter 3

I am not quite sure how to proceed with this article. Maybe I should merge the two texts, so it will have one part on American woodland cemeteries and one on European ones. // Habj 12:32, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

... or, maybe this article should be moved to any of the other synonyms mentioned - natural burial ground, eco-cemetery, green burial ground - and leave this title for an article about a kind of landscape architectural design of cemeteries. // Habj 12:44, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Also, the article as currently written seems a bit... not NPOV. :) Perhaps dump the stuff about how nasty "conventional burial" is and reduce the eco-advertisement a bit. --Brion 11:58, 23 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Proper names and generic terms

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The term "Woodland Cemetery" is both a proper name, as in the case of Skogskyrkogården as well as a more generic term originally used by the Natural Death Center in the United Kingdom to refer to a cemetery where trees are used as a personal memorial rather than tombstones.

Woodland cemeteries have been introduced into North America as both a new type of burial design but also as a vehicle for environmental restoration and protection.

The term “woodland cemetery” within this context is pretty much a UK colloquialism, terms such as “Natural Burial Ground” (Canada), “Memorial Nature Preserve” (USA) and “Green Burial Ground” have become much more recognised.

Perhaps this article could reflect the history and changing meaning of the term” woodland cemetery”

earthartist 17:50, 23 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Earthartist has above mainly discussed the term used as a synonym to eco-cemetery. I merged three of the four articles containing the same text. 'Woodland cemetery' can, like many other words, have several different meanings - the important thing is that the architectural concept exists, and woodland cemetery is the best title I can think of for the article about it. For now, I place the text about it here. // habj 08:14, 2 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]