Cremation in Modern Scotland: History, Architecture and the Law

This book constructs the very first account of how Scottish cremationists pioneered a radical alternative to burial. The authors employed an interdisciplinary approach, derived from history, theology, the anthropology of religion, law and architecture. Researched from archives previously unstudied and from primary and secondary legal materials, it traces the development of Scottish law on the disposal of the dead up to the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016. Until recently, Scotland's 28 crematoria have been the 'invisible' buildings of the twentieth century. This book analyses the challenge this new building type provided for architects: a building with no architectural precedent, at once secular and religious, functional and symbolic. Her photographs, selection of plans and archive illustrations give to this meticulously detailed book a frame of reference for the stylistic pluralism that prevails in Scotland.