A motorway sign symbol of a church was translated directly into the structure of this roadside chapel on the outskirts of Wilnsdorf, Germany, by Frankfurt architects Schneider+Schumacher (+ slideshow).
Photograph by Helen Schiffer
The design for Siegerland Motorway Church was Schneider+Schumacher‘s winning entry to a competition seeking proposals for a chapel to be built on a site overlooking a busy motorway and surrounded by a hotel, petrol station and fast-food restaurant.
The building’s form draws on the visual language of its environs – particularly the standard icon used to depict a church on Germany’s road signs.
This stylised image is visible on two facades on either side of a square nave, which transitions into a long sloping walkway leading to the entrance.
“Whether approached from afar from the Dortmund direction, or from the motorway service area, the church represents a built version of the motorway church signage,” explained architect Michael Schumacher. “Even though its exterior form is abstract, it still signals in an immediate and direct way, ‘I am a church!'”
In a video describing the design process, Schumacher claims the abstract form also suggests other shapes, such as the folded paper of Japanese origami or the pointed ears worn by comic-book character Batman.
The timber structure of the outer walls was assembled from elements produced off site and incorporates laminated timber sections providing extra strength to the roof and towers.
Photography by Helen Schiffer
Following assembly, the whole of the church and the entrance passage were sprayed with a white polyurethane damp-proofing material that unifies the faceted surfaces.
Photograph by Helen Schiffer
Windows on one side of the pointed spire-like towers draw natural light into a nave that features an organic cave-like structure, contrasting with the building’s geometric outer shell.
Photograph by Helen Schiffer
“The interior was meant to come as a surprise, contrary to the expectations raised by the exterior,” said Schumacher. “The exterior is abstract; the interior is warm, friendly, magical and sacred, transporting you to a different world.”
Photograph by Helen Schiffer
A structure made from 66 wooden ribs, developed using parametric computer modelling software, opens up from the entrance to create a high-vaulted dome above the altar.
Photograph by Helen Schiffer
The individual parts required to build the framework were optimally positioned on sheets of chipboard to minimise waste during the cutting process.
The wooden shapes slot together to create a rigid and self-supporting structure, which conceals the sacristy and storage spaces in gaps around its curved edges.
Oriented strand board – a type of engineered chipboard – was used for interior furnishings including simple boxy stools, a lectern and a candle stand.
Daylight from the windows is focused on the altar, podium and cross, which are painted white to give them an ethereal appearance.
Photograph by Helen Schiffer
Artificial lighting is hidden behind the latticed wooden structure and is designed to illuminate the space in the same way as the natural light that filters through the structure.
Walls of different heights and widths create a maze-like sequence of passages and entrances around the main hall of this church in the Philippines by New York architects CAZA (+ slideshow).
CAZA designed the exterior of the church in Cebu City as a complex arrangement of monolithic surfaces to give it an ambiguous form that they say represents the enigmatic nature of religion.
“We imagined it might be something mysterious, perhaps even as odd as the early gothic churches that resisted iconography, presenting their parishioners with an architectural image of a dense mass of buttresses, ribs, vaults and spires,” said the architects.
Walls with a standard thickness but different heights and widths are arranged in a staggered formation that creates multiple routes into and through the building.
“All the walls are placed only in one direction so that the building is completely opaque from one side and totally transparent in the opposite view,” the architects explained. “Anywhere in between these two states is an optical play of light and dark.”
The layered sequence of vertical surfaces creates dynamic patterns of light and shadow both during the day and when they are illuminated at night, while clerestory windows filter light into the interior.
The position of the walls was also determined by a grid based on the position of rows of pews and the space required to sit and kneel.
Additional functional spaces required by the church were integrated into the grid and the walls were constructed around them.
The average height of the walls increases towards the rear of the building to support the roof as it rises above the altar and choir stalls, which are located on a mezzanine level.
Passages around the periphery of the hall lead to the multiple entry points and are punctuated by gaps in the floor, through which trees rise from the sunken gardens below.
What should a sacred space look like today? How should it work? Is there such a thing as a contemporary idea of the sacred?
In spite of a glut of typological clues we choose an anti-form. We did not want legibility. We sought to reinforce the experience of the search. Religions are defined by their mysteries and the stories of individuals who break through.
Our contemporary condition is increasingly defined by a shared sense of exile—we are never entirely at home. The sight of a foreign object that resists iconography and presents with a furtive experience of anticipation might be a version of the architectural sacred.
Our design for the 100 Walls Church in Cebu is an attempt to think through strangeness in architecture. What would it be to see something we don’t know? Like Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane forest, we are puzzled without reason to save us. We need to wander and think through the system by ourselves.
All the walls are placed only in one direction so that the building is completely opaque from one side and totally transparent in the opposite view. Anywhere in between these two states is an optical play of light and dark. The walls are aligned along a grid that follows the spacing of the pews marking the relationship between the two: the minute scale of the individual and the cosmic scale of the universe. The monolithic quality of the walls plays off the fleeting reality of the colored light that filters through the clerestory windows. The sacred is after all inexorably linked to the fact that we are here only for a short time while our architecture aspires towards permanence.
The gothic idea of space might have been one of the most poignant statements of this conundrum. The best churches of medieval Europe sought to present parishioners with an architectural image of a dense and layered mass of buttresses, ribs, vaults and spires – God as both a mystery and a source of enlightenment.
The 100 Walls Church invites us to wander around its grounds and discover sunken gardens, pockets of blue light and an enigmatic profusion of talismanic walls. The multitude of doors and passages is a reminder that there are as many paths as there are lives and that a sacred space today should draw out meaning in its inscrutability.
Location: Cebu, Philippines Completed: January 2013 Size: 8,924 sqm
A rectilinear belfry towers above the geometric white volume of this church congregation hall in Hungary by local firm SAGRA Architects (+ slideshow).
The Szolnok Reformed Church Congregation House is the first of two buildings by SAGRA Architects to be completed on the site in Szolnok, central Hungary, following a competition to design a new church complex.
The single-storey building contains a hall capable of accommodating around 30-40 people, an office and kitchen facilities, providing spaces that can be used for either worship or other community activities.
A wall extends out from the eastern side of the building, connecting the structure with the bell tower and creating a secluded terrace in front of the glazed southern facade.
This facade is also slightly recessed to allow part of the gabled roof to function as a canopy across the entrance.
“The basis of our concept was to create an open, clear and transparent space that still represents protection,” explained architect Gábor Sajtos.
Exterior walls are rendered white, while the roof is clad with black slate tiles and windows are framed by stained wood.
“The materials used reflect the spirituality of the building,” said Sajitos. “The white plastered walls and black slate roof suit its austerity and noble simplicity.”
Construction on the neighbouring church has not yet begun, due to problems securing funding. Once complete, it will be positioned on the northern boundary of the site, while remaining spaces between the two buildings will feature flower gardens.
Read on for more information from Sagra Architects:
Congregation House – SAGRA Architects
“… but love builds people up” – 1 Corinthians 8
The design process was preceded by an architectural competition. The SAGRA Architects’ design was rewarded as the winning proposal.
The congregation house is multifunctional: besides operating as congregation hall it houses catechism classes and programmes, fulfils social duties and charity tasks. As the building is also an eco-point, its programmes play part in spreading ecological thinking and teaching sustainable behaviour.
The basis of our concept during the design of Szolnok Reformed Church Congregation House was to create an open, clear and transparent space that still represents protection. Due to its architecture the building serves as a suitable place for worship and community occasions.
The building complex has two parts: the single-storey, cantilevered volume of the congregation house with gabled roof and the Bell tower. The bell tower is an organic part of the complex. The wooden terrace, inserted between the congregation house and the tower extends and opens up the internal community space through a fully openable glass wall. The cantilevered roof creates a transition zone between inside and outside. The south facade is shaded by the strongly cantilevered roof in summer, while it lets in the sharp angled sunbeams in winter.
The composition of the buildings is completed by the lavender garden, the floral garden and the lawn garden with seating and water surface.
The main access to the building is from south, from the street. Here the visitor is led through a pulled back, transition entrance area. The bell tower’s volume leads into the site. The walls, built on the southern and western site boundaries are the integral parts of the complex, symbols of protection, but open up and lead in at the same time. Placing the buildings on the site boundaries is also part of the local building regulations. Through these walls open up, the site becomes private but still open for passing through from all directions.
The congregation hall is extendable towards the wooden terrace. The terrace becomes the full, open-air part of the hall in summer.
Competition-winning proposal for church complex
The materials used reflect the spirituality of the building. The white plastered walls and black slate roof suit to its austerity and noble simplicity. The doors, windows and the south facade of the building are covered with stained wood, as well as the underside of the cantilevered roof.
As the building is also an eco-point, its programmes play part in spreading ecological thinking and teaching sustainable behaviour, so we considered this aspect during the design process.
The heating and hot water supply of this low energy, economical building is solved by an air to water heat pump. The heating is radiating surface heating (heated floor and ceiling), the cooling is provided by radiating surface cooling from the ceiling. The temperature of the spaces is controlled by thermostatic valves.
The church complex contains three main masses: the church, the congregation house with pastor’s office and the bell tower. The three volumes form an inseparable unity.
Until now the congregation house and the bell tower were built. The congregation is aiming to construct the church too in the future, but the financial background for it is still missing.
The industrial materials used to construct this church in Seville, Spain, make it look more like an edge-of-town manufacturing plant than a place for worship (+ slideshow).
Spanish-Kuwaiti firm AGi architects designed the church for an area built in the last 15 years on the outskirts of the city, which required a new church as well as a place for community activities.
The different planes that form the roof feature apertures that allow light to reach the interior and help to distinguish the various interior spaces, which perform different liturgical functions. “One of these folds steeps up to become the bell tower, though no bells have been installed due to the economic situation,” the architects told Dezeen.
“The shape of the building relates to its context through the idea of unfolding a cover that creates a place for meeting and fraternisation, in contrast with the rigid look of the dwelling buildings where the individualised everyday life takes place,” the architects said.
The church adjoins a large courtyard that connects it to the existing facilities of a community parish centre, and its industrial aesthetic reflects the contemporary nature of its surroundings.
The stone-tiled courtyard that provides a meeting space for community activities extends into the building’s interior and a series of doors can be opened to unite the two spaces.
The architects described the tiled floor as “a stone carpet that is unfolded to enter the main space of the church in an arrangement that facilitates the participation of the entire assembly in the liturgy.”
Two smaller courtyards connected to the spaces containing the baptismal font, the penitential chapel and sacristy are used to host activities including markets, cinema screenings, religious teaching classes and as a place for contemplation.
Budgetary restraints led the architects to specify simple, economical materials, including the corrugated steel sheet covering the roof, false ceilings and partitions made of gypsum board, and concrete blocks used for the outer shell.
“White plaster finish links with more traditional architectures while the sheet of the roof is a technical solution that makes a reference to present, the period in which this urban development was carried out,” the architects added.
Structural girders form a cross at the church’s entrance, which has “an open shape that recalls traditional religious architecture”.
The angular aesthetic of the walls and roof is echoed in the shape of the wood and stone pulpit.
This building proposed by AGi architects means the completion of the Parish Center and its empowerment as focus of community activity for the neighborhood. The project aims at strengthening the Parish Center as a meeting and fraternization place, in order to develop spiritual and welfare tasks. It has been designed by economical savings and sustainability premises, simple construction techniques and materials, while endowing the district with an image and sign of identity.
The spatial scheme of the building is structured through three different qualifying voids: the large central courtyard that belongs to the first phase of the Parish Center, which now articulates the relationships between worship spaces and the rest of facilities. Its stone surface is prolonged inwards to enter the main space of the church and, bending towards the walls, creates a huge vessel that houses the congregation of believers. There are other two smaller scale courtyards, one of them linked to the area of the baptismal font, the other to the penitential chapel and sacristy.
Due to security reasons, the nature of shelter and interaction inherent to the project are only revealed to the outside in the main entrance that plays a relevant role as an open attraction space to welcome and invite users inside.
The shape of the roof, which unfolds freely to cover the assembly space by joining various inclined planes, allows the introduction of natural light inside, to achieve a clear qualification of the different areas needed to comply with liturgy requirements.
According to AGi architects’ team, “this church is very close to the community, reaching the transcendental through the existing social problems and needs. Our goal has been to open the space for community use, making it more human”.
Project Name: La Ascensión del Señor Church Type: Religious | 1,150 sqm | Competition – First prize Location: Seville, Spain Date: 2010-2013 Client: Archdiocese of Seville Cost: Confidential
Design Team: Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea Nasser B. Abulhasan Salvador Cejudo
Architectural team: Daniel Muñoz Gwenola Kergall Bruno Gomes Stefania Rendinelli Javier Alonso Daniel Bas
Consultants: Singe K, Ingenieros Consultores, S.L Javier Drake Canela
Diagonally laid timber planks create zig-zagging patterns across the exterior of this church in Cologne by German architects Sauerbruch Hutton (+ slideshow).
Sauerbruch Hutton arranged the buildings of the Immanuel Church and Parish Centre around an existing parish garden, creating a series of wooden structures that nestle amongst a group of trees.
A bell tower marks the entrance to the site from the street. A winding pathway leads up to the main church building beyond, then on to a small chapel used for private prayer and a columbarium where funeral urns are stored.
Each building is constructed from timber and clad with the diagonal panels. “Their character is defined by simplicity of form combined with straightforward construction and honest materiality,” said the architects.
Structural columns are exposed inside the church, creating a sequence of ribs that punctuate the pale wooden walls.
A low foyer brings visitors into the central nave, which is designed as a flexible space for hosting various community events. Seating can be moved into different arrangements and extra chairs can be utilised from a first-floor space above the foyer.
Two wings flank the nave on either side, accommodating a sacristy where the priest prepares for services, community rooms, a music room and a kitchen.
The organ is concealed behind a coloured timber partition, while a matte glass window catches light and shadow movements from outside.
Sauerbruch Hutton is a Berlin studio led by architects Matthias Sauerbruch, Louisa Hutton and Juan Lucas Young. Past projects include the colourful Brandhorst Museum in Munich, completed in 2009.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Immanuel Church and Parish Centre
The new Immanuel Church in Cologne is approached through an existing parish garden defined by a circle of mature trees. Offering itself for outside activity and worship, this garden becomes the central element of a new ensemble that comprises a bell tower, the church, a small chapel for private prayer, as well as a columbarium.
The bell tower marks the entrance to the site from the street. A visitor enters the church through a simple rectangular entrance into a low foyer that opens out into a central nave flanked by two low wings, somewhat reinterpreting the classical section of a basilica for a small, modern parish. The wings accommodate the sacristy, community rooms, music room and kitchen. The central nave provides a clear space with loose chairs that can be rearranged for community events, while a tribune rising above the foyer provides additional seating.
Behind the altar a coloured timber screen reaches up to the roof, hinting at the location of the organ that lies behind. Daylight enters the church from above illuminating the altar wall, and from the rear above the tribune bringing light and the play of leaf shadows onto a matt glass screen. In the evening low hanging lamps provide an atmosphere of warm light and create an intimate scale.
Standing alone, the small, simple chapel is screened from the outside bustle. Behind the chapel a new columbarium is nestled amongst the trees. The bell tower, church and chapel are clad externally with diagonally laid timber planks. Their character is defined by simplicity of form in combination with straightforward construction and honest materiality.
Faceted white walls frame the entrances to this monochrome auditorium in rural New South Wales by Australian architects Silvester Fuller (+ slideshow).
Silvester Fuller designed the auditorium building as a flexible events space for the Anglican church of Dapto, a small town south of Sydney.
The building is sandwiched between the existing town hall and primary school, creating a community hub and meeting place that is close to the town’s church.
“Locating the auditorium between these two facilities presented the opportunity to create a central hub, from which all the primary event spaces in both the new and existing buildings are accessed,” said the architects. “This hub becomes the campus meeting place.”
Large pre-cast concrete panels give a textured surface to the exterior walls. These are painted black to contrast with the white entrances, which are clad with sheets of fibre cement.
A paved terrace between the car park and the building leads visitors towards the main entrance, which comprises a concertina-style screen of glazed doors and windows.
The doors can be folded back to the edges of the entrance, opening the hall out to its surroundings.
The 500-seat auditorium is located at the back of the building and has an entirely black interior.
Silvester Fuller’s Dapto Anglican Church Auditorium is the first of a new generation of buildings for the Anglican Parish of Dapto. The design is a response to the changing functional and social direction of the church and it’s relationship with the community.
Intended to complement nearby St Luke’s Chapel, the auditorium offers a theatre-like venue for a broader range of event types. No longer a place devoted solely to Sunday worship services, the new church building is required to support a range of events held in the morning, afternoon and evening, 7 days a week and catering to a broad spectrum of the local community.
The organisational strategy for the site involved the relocation of vehicular traffic to the site perimeter, allowing for a fully pedestrianised centre. The new auditorium was then to be located on the site with minimal intervention to the existing buildings. For this reason the perimeter plan of the new auditorium is bounded by the two existing buildings; a preschool and church hall. Locating the auditorium between these two facilities presented the opportunity to create a central hub, from which all the primary event spaces, in both the new and existing buildings are accessed. This hub becomes the campus meeting place.
Once the perimeter mass of the new building was defined, circulation spaces were carved out of the mass, informed by the flow of people from the parking areas to the building and subsequently in and around the two primary spaces; the auditorium and foyer. This subtraction of mass defines voids which connect these spaces to each other and the landscape. The secondary support spaces then occupy the remaining solid mass. The requirements of the individual spaces called for a delicate balance between generosity and intimacy, with some spaces open to the landscape and others completely concealed from it.
The external facade responds to two conditions: where the primary mass has been retained the facade surface is dark, earth-like and roughly textured. In contrast the subtracted void areas are bright, smooth and crisp surfaces identifying the building entrances and acting as collection devices. Once inside the building, the entry into the main auditorium is an inverse of the exterior, presenting recessed darkened apertures acting as portals which then open into the 500 seat theatre. The theatre is a black-box with a singular focus on the stage. There is provision for a natural-light-emitting lampshade to be built above the stage at a later date.
A modest budget demanded construction simplicity combined with spatial clarity and efficiency, to produce a building that is easily understood whilst standing apart from its context. The new building aims to establish a new design direction and focus for the Parish and is envisaged as stage one of a master plan of growth.
Diagrammatic section
Site: 9546 square metres New building: 1155 square metres Auditorium capacity: 500 people Parking capacity: 118 cars, 10 bicycles Design phase: 2008-2009 Construction phase: 2010-2012 Client: Anglican Parish of Dapto & Anglican Church Property Trust Council: Woollongong City Council Architect: Silvester Fuller Project leaders: Jad Silvester, Penny Fuller Project team: Patrik Braun, Rachid Andary, Bruce Feng
News: the completion of Art Nouveau architect Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona is simulated in this movie released to show the final stages of construction anticipated before 2026, 100 years after the death of the architect (+ movie).
It combines helicopter footage of the current building with computer-animated renders to show spires, a central cupola and other remaining structures rise from nothing.
When the basilica is finished it will have 18 towers dedicated to different religious figures, of various heights to reflect their hierarchy. There are eight towers completed so far.
Work began on Sagrada Familia in 1882 and Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi took over the direction in 1914. The completed basilica is due to open in 2026, 144 years after it began, to coincide with the centennial anniversary of Gaudí’s death in 1926.
Since the mid 1980s, the build has been overseen by Catalan architect Jordi Bonet, whose father previously worked on the project with Gaudí.
News: the Cardboard Cathedral designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban opens to the public today in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The building was designed by Shigeru Ban as a temporary replacement for the city’s former Anglican cathedral, which was destroyed by the earthquake that struck the city in February 2011. With an expected lifespan of around 50 years, it will serve the community until a more permanent cathedral can be constructed.
The building features a triangular profile constructed from 98 equally sized cardboard tubes. These surround a coloured glass window made from tessellating triangles, decorated with images from the original cathedral’s rose window.
The main hall has the capacity to accommodate up to 700 people for events and concerts, plus eight steel shipping containers house chapels and storage areas below.
The cathedral had initially been scheduled to open in February, but was subject to a series of construction delays. The first service will now be held on Sunday 11 August.
Dezeen interviewed Shigeru Ban back in 2009, when he explained that he considers “green design” to be just a fashion, but that he is most interested in “using materials without wasting”.
This elliptical chapel near Oxford by London studio Niall McLaughlin Architects contains a group of arching timber columns behind its textured stone facade (+ slideshow).
The Bishop Edward King Chapel replaces another smaller chapel at the Ripon Theological College campus and accommodates both students of the college and the local nuns of a small religious order.
Niall McLaughlin Architects was asked to create a building that respects the historic architecture of the campus, which includes a nineteenth century college building and vicarage, and also fits comfortably amongst a grove of mature trees.
For the exterior, the architects sourced a sandy-coloured stone, similar to the limestone walls of the existing college, and used small blocks to create a zigzagging texture around the outside of the ellipse. A wooden roof crowns the structure and integrates a row of clerestory windows that bring light across the ceiling.
Inside, the tree-like timber columns form a second layer behind the walls, enclosing the nave of the chapel and creating an ambulatory around the perimeter. Each column comprises at least three branches, which form a latticed canopy overhead.
Niall McLaughlin told Dezeen: “If you get up very early, at sunrise, the horizontal sun casts a maze of moving shadows of branches, leaves, window mullions and structure onto the ceiling. It is like looking up into trees in a wood.”
A projecting window offers a small seating area on one side of the chapel, where McLaughlin says you can “watch the sunlit fields on the other side of the valley”.
Photography is by the architects, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here’s a detailed project description from Niall McLaughlin Architects:
Bishop Edward King Chapel
The client brief sought a new chapel for Ripon Theological College, to serve the two interconnected groups resident on the campus in Oxfordshire, the college community and the nuns of a small religious order, the Sisters of Begbroke. The chapel replaces the existing one, designed by George Edmund Street in the late nineteenth century, which had since proved to be too small for the current needs of the college.
The brief asked for a chapel that would accommodate the range of worshipping needs of the two communities in a collegiate seating arrangement, and would be suitable for both communal gatherings and personal prayer. In addition the brief envisioned a separate space for the Sisters to recite their offices, a spacious sacristy, and the necessary ancillary accommodation. Over and above these outline requirements, the brief set out the clients’ aspirations for the chapel, foremost as ‘a place of personal encounter with the numinous’ that would enable the occupants to think creatively about the relationship between space and liturgy. The client summarised their aspirations for the project with Philip Larkin’s words from his poem Church Going, ‘A serious house on serious earth it is… which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in…’.
On the site is an enormous beech tree on the brow of the hill. Facing away from the beech and the college buildings behind, there is ring of mature trees on high ground overlooking the valley that stretches away towards Garsington. This clearing has its own particular character, full of wind and light and the rustling of leaves.
These strengths of the site also presented significant planning constraints. The college’s existing buildings are of considerable historical importance. G.E. Street was a prominent architect of the Victorian Age and both the main college building and vicarage to its south are Grade II* listed.
The site is designated within the Green Belt in the South Oxfordshire Local Plan and is also visible from a considerable distance across the valley to the west. The immediate vicinity of the site is populated with mature trees and has a Tree Preservation Order applied to a group at the eastern boundary. The design needed to integrate with the character of the panorama and preserve the setting of the college campus and the surrounding trees.
The mediation of these interlocked planning sensitivities required extensive consultation with South Oxfordshire District Council, English Heritage and local residents.
The starting point for this project was the hidden word ‘nave’ at the centre of Seamus Heaney poem Lightenings viii. The word describes the central space of a church, but shares the same origin as ‘navis’, a ship, and can also mean the still centre of a turning wheel. From these words, two architectural images emerged. The first is the hollow in the ground as the meeting place of the community, the still centre. The second is the delicate ship-like timber structure that floats above in the tree canopy, the gathering place for light and sound. We enjoyed the geometry of the ellipse.
To construct an ellipse the stable circle is played against the line, which is about movement back and forth. For us this reflected the idea of exchange between perfect and imperfect at the centre of Christian thought. The movement inherent in the geometry is expressed in the chapel through the perimeter ambulatory. It is possible to walk around the chapel, looking into the brighter space in the centre. The sense of looking into an illuminated clearing goes back to the earliest churches. We made a clearing to gather in the light.
The chapel, seen from the outside, is a single stone enclosure. We have used Clipsham stone which is sympathetic, both in terms of texture and colouration, to the limestone of the existing college. The external walls are of insulated cavity construction, comprising of a curved reinforced blockwork internal leaf and dressed stone outer leaf.
The base of the chapel and the ancillary structures are clad in ashlar stone laid in regular courses. The upper section of the main chapel is dressed in cropped walling stone, laid in a dog-tooth bond to regular courses. The chapel wall is surmounted by a halo of natural stone fins. The fins sit in front of high-performance double glazed units, mounted in concealed metal frames.
Photograph by Denis Gilbert
The roof of the main chapel and the ancillary block are both of warm deck construction. The chapel roof drains to concealed rainwater pipes running through the cavity of the external wall. Where exposed at clerestory level, the rainwater pipes are clad in aluminium sleeves with a bronze anodised finish and recessed into the stone fins. The roof and the internal frame are self-supporting and act independently from the external walls.
A minimal junction between the roof and the walls expresses this. Externally the roof parapet steps back to diminish its presence above the clerestorey; inside the underside of the roof structure rises up to the outer walls to form the shape of a keel, expressing the floating ‘navis’ of Heaney’s poem.
The internal timber structure is constructed of prefabricated Glulam sections with steel fixings and fully concealed steel base plate connections. The Glulam sections are made up of visual grade spruce laminations treated with a two-part stain system, which gives a light white-washed finish.
The structure of roof and columns express the geometrical construction of the ellipse itself, a ferrying between centre and edge with straight lines that reveals the two stable foci at either end, reflected in the collegiate layout below in the twin focus points of altar and lectern. As you move around the chapel there is an unfolding rhythm interplay between the thicket of columns and the simple elliptical walls beyond. The chapel can be understood as a ship in a bottle, the hidden ‘nave’.
RIBA competition won – July 2009 Planning Consent – June 2010 Construction – July 2011 Practical Completion – February 2013 Construction Cost – 2,034,000
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