MesoSpace Conversations on Cemeteries of Tomorrow is created for professionals, leaders, and communities who are shaping the future of cemetery and crematorium services across Australia and internationally. This podcast is for anyone interested in sustainable cemetery planning, landscape architecture, urban design, memorial infrastructure, governance, digital memorialisation, community engagement, and the evolving role of cemeteries in contemporary cities.

Our audience includes cemetery operators and managers who are navigating real operational pressures such as land scarcity, ageing infrastructure, tenure reform, maintenance challenges, cultural expectations, and financial sustainability. It is also valuable for council teams responsible for public land management, master planning, urban greening, asset management, and long-term city resilience planning. Policy makers, regulators, and government agencies working on legislation, burial tenure models, environmental compliance, or sector reform will also find practical insights and future-focused perspectives.

Urban planners, landscape architects, architects, engineers, environmental consultants, GIS specialists, ecologists, and design practitioners will gain an understanding of how memorial landscapes can contribute to biodiversity, climate resilience, ecological restoration, and integrated green infrastructure networks. The podcast highlights how cemetery land can support nature-based solutions, sustainable drainage, natural burial, carbon reduction strategies, and circular-economy models for the crematoria and funeral industry.

We also welcome funeral directors, crematoria operators, grief support workers, social researchers, historians, artists, cultural leaders, and community organisations who are exploring how memorial spaces can better reflect diversity, cultural identity, storytelling, heritage values, and inclusive community needs. As digital transformation accelerates, this series will be particularly relevant for innovators working in digital memorialisation, virtual remembrance platforms, cemetery mapping systems, data governance, and technology-enhanced user experiences.

Students and academics in landscape architecture, planning, anthropology, sociology, environmental studies, and death studies will also discover emerging ideas, new models, and evidence-based research that challenge traditional thinking about cemeteries. For members of the public, community advocates, and anyone curious about the future of remembrance within rapidly growing cities, this podcast offers accessible, thought-provoking insights into how cemeteries can evolve into multifunctional, sustainable, community-centred landscapes.

Whether you manage cemetery operations, design memorial parks, develop policy frameworks, plan sustainable cities, or simply want to understand how future cemeteries will look, feel, and function, this podcast will equip you with knowledge, inspiration, and practical tools for navigating the changing landscape of death care, memorialisation, and sustainable land use.

The podcast discussion focused on heritage conservation for cemeteries and their overall management, featuring Benjamin Gall from Australian Heritage Specialists. Ben shared his background in heritage consultancy and detailed how cemeteries in Australia are commonly recognised as heritage sites, particularly those with historical burials from European settlement. He highlighted a successful case study of a repurposed cemetery in Tingalpa, Brisbane, which was saved from development and transformed into an active community space through continued burials and community engagement. The conversation explored challenges around cemetery accessibility and maintenance, while also discussing opportunities for sustainability through heritage tourism and associated opportunities. Ben concluded by discussing future trends in cemetery management, including the potential use of AI technology for virtual interpretation of memorials and the evolving nature of burial practices toward cremation and columbaria.

Preserving Historical Cemeteries Through Community Action

Benjamin shared a case study about a Tingalpa Pioneer Chapel and Cemetery in Brisbane, which was saved from being sold for industrial development through community action. The cemetery, which contains historical burials including prominent early settlers, is now actively used by the community for events, rehearsals, and maintenance, with new burials having recently resumed to ensure its continued use and preservation. Benjamin emphasized thatcemeteries need to remain active spaces for burials to maintain their heritage value and community connection.

⁠https://www.ahspecialists.com.au/blog/tingalpas-pioneers-chapel-celebrates-150-years/⁠

Cemetery Repurposing and Management

Benjamin shared his experience with repurposing cemeteries as active urban spaces, highlighting the success of Tingalpa Pioneer Chapel and Cemetery in hosting community events while respecting buried remains.

He emphasised the importance of using ground-penetrating radar to map burial sites and avoid developing on top of them. Benjamin also discussed the challenge of managing cemeteries as public spaces, noting that while visitors respect the site, others can cause additional wear and tear to pathways and grounds if the number of visitors suddenly increases.

Cemetery Heritage and Protection

Ben discussed his experience with cemetery heritage, including listing and protecting cemeteries on local heritage registers and managing statutory approvals under local or state planning provisions. Hamed introduced Ben as a guest on the “Cemeteries of Tomorrow” podcast series, highlighting his role as Managing Director and Principal Consultant at Australian Heritage Specialists, the largest integrated heritage practice in Queensland.

Heritage Consultancy and Cultural Practices

Ben discussed his background in heritage consultancy, focusing on cultural heritage practices across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. He explained that his work often involves multidisciplinary teams, including landscape architects, designers, archaeologists, historians, and planners, particularly in areas such as cemeteries and churches, which are generally accepted as having heritage value. Ben shared his personal journey from an early interest in history and conservation, influenced by family and a formative trip to Europe in 1981, to his current role in heritage management. He highlighted the practical aspects of his work, including collaboration with local governments on cemetery management, and emphasised the evolving nature of heritage practices in Australia.

What if a cemetery could be more than a place of burial? What if it could become a landscape of healing, memory, culture and public life?

In this episode of Cities of Tomorrow, Hamed Tavakoli speaks with Florence Jaquet, a landscape architect specialising in cemetery and memorial design. Born near Paris and trained in horticulture in Lille and landscape architecture in Geneva, Florence has worked across France, Switzerland, England and Australia. For four decades, she has helped reshape how cemeteries are planned and experienced.

Florence reflects on the childhood garden that inspired her love of plants, the artistic influence of her mother, and the European traditions that shaped her practice. French experimentation, Swiss environmental thinking and British landscape traditions each influenced her approach to nature and remembrance.

The conversation explores why cemetery design matters. Florence describes grief not as a single moment, but as a process. People may enter a memorial landscape carrying pain and uncertainty, then gradually move towards remembrance and connection. Thoughtful design can support that transition through human-scale spaces, privacy, shelter, planting, seasonal change, art, music and places for reflection.

The episode also examines children’s memorial areas. Florence discusses how children grieve differently from adults and why spaces should allow siblings to play, write messages and process loss at their own pace. She shares ideas including writable stone surfaces, message trees, protective circular forms and planting that communicates care, safety and the cycle of life.

A major focus is Macarthur Memorial Park, a 120-hectare greenfield cemetery conceived as much more than a burial ground. Florence explains how its design emerged from a detailed reading of topography, geology, ecology, climate, waterways and cultural history. Rather than imposing a large design statement, the aim was to work lightly with the rolling hills, retain natural systems and create a peaceful place connected to its setting.

The park was planned as a multi-purpose public landscape, with walking and cycling routes, wetlands created from former farm dams, a café, sculpture, cultural interpretation and a proposed timeline walk telling the story of the land—from geology and ecology to First Nations knowledge and European settlement. Can cemeteries become active parts of cities rather than isolated places visited only for funerals?

Florence and Hamed also discuss cemetery tourism, differences between European and Australian burial traditions, natural burial, renewable grave tenure and the challenge of burial in perpetuity. With urban cemeteries running out of space and facing ongoing maintenance costs, Florence argues that legislation, land use and burial practices must evolve. She compares approaches used in Switzerland, Western Australia and South Australia, and explains why sustainability must include what happens after death.

The conversation also travels to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where Florence worked in a context shaped by Buddhism, shamanic traditions, nomadic life and frozen ground. Her experience highlights the importance of designing with local culture rather than applying a universal model.

Topics explored:

• Landscapes that support grief and healing
• Children’s memorial gardens and sibling grief
• Human scale, privacy, planting, art and music
• Macarthur Memorial Park and landscape-led planning
• Cemeteries as parks and community spaces
• Natural burial, renewable tenure and sustainability
• Cemetery tourism and changing attitudes towards death
• First Nations knowledge and respect for Country
• The future of urban cemeteries

Florence’s final message is personal and urgent: talk with your family about your wishes, consider the environmental impact of those choices, and recognise that death is part of the wider cycle of life.