Designed by German studio Architekten Martenson und Nagel Theissen, Cafe Pavilion contains three separate dining rooms for cemetery visitors and funeral parties.
The town cemetery in the Eastern part of Düren has taken on the role of a public park. Before, there was nowhere for cemetery visitors to shelter nor for large or small funeral ceremonies to take place. The new cemetery and café pavilion is a space where people can encounter each other when things are out of the ordinary. They can grieve together, exchange memories and look for refuge, which they will find under a multifaceted ceiling landscape.
Together, the barrel vault, the pent roof and the tent roof of the guest or meeting rooms create a diverse, continuous ceiling landscape that provides a feeling of security, connects the rooms to form a flowing overall space and opens up varied views of the surrounding park. The landscape profile created by the ceiling forms is evident in the facade and connects the individual exterior views of the building with one another.
The simple materials applied give this pavilion clarity and uniqueness. Dolomite stone from the Alps was sprinkled into the reinforced concrete floor slab while it was being poured to give the floor of the pavilion a lively, terrazzo-like feeling after it was sanded. The color scheme of the pavilion is based on the color of the dignified plane trees, which characterize the cemetery park; this finds expression in silver-glazed timber surfaces, oxidized aluminium windows, and green colored glazing.
