Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2020

NIALL MCLAU­GHLIN – BISHOP EDWARD KING CHAPEL

Desi­gner	Niall McLau­ghlin
Loca­tion	Cud­de­sdon, Oxfordshire
Desi­gn Team	Archi­tect — Niall McLau­ghlin Architects Buil­ding Con­trac­tor — Beard Construction Struc­tu­ral Engi­neer — Pri­ce and Myers M & E Engi­neer — Syner­gy Con­sul­ting Engineers Acou­stic Engi­neer — Paul Gil­lie­ron Acou­stic Design Land­sca­pe Archi­tect / Arbo­ri­cul­tu­ra­li­st — The Land­sca­pe Partnership Quan­ti­ty Sur­veyor / BREEAM Asses­sor — Rid­ge and Part­ners LLP Sto­ne Con­sul­tant — Har­ri­son Goldman Access Con­sul­tant — Jane Toplis Associates Plan­ning Con­sul­tant — Natha­niel Lich­field and Partners CDM Coor­di­na­tor — HCD Mana­ge­ment Ltd Appro­ved Buil­ding Con­trol Inspec­tor — HCD Buil­ding Control Con­struc­tion Con­sul­tant — Richard Bayfield
Anno	2013
Pho­to credits	“1‑External” Niall McLau­ghlin Architects “2‑External” Niall McLau­ghlin Architects “3‑External” Niall McLau­ghlin Architects “4‑External” Nick Kane “5‑External” Nick Kane “1‑Internal” Nick Kane “2‑Internal” Niall McLau­ghlin Architects “3‑Internal” Niall McLau­ghlin Architects “4‑Internal” Den­nis Gilbert “5‑Internal” Den­nis Gilbert

Foto ester­ni

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

Ripon Theo­lo­gi­cal Col­le­ge sought a new cha­pel to ser­ve the col­le­ge com­mu­ni­ty and a small order of nuns. The brief asked for a spa­ce that would accom­mo­da­te the ran­ge of wor­ship­ping needs of the two com­mu­ni­ties in an anti­pho­nal arran­ge­ment, sui­ta­ble for both com­mu­nal gathe­rings and per­so­nal prayer.

On the site is a lar­ge beech tree on the brow of the hill. Facing away from the beech and the buil­dings behind, a ring of matu­re trees on high ground over­looks a val­ley. This clea­ring has a par­ti­cu­lar cha­rac­ter, full of wind, light and rustling lea­ves. We sought to cap­tu­re this within the building.

The star­ting point for this pro­ject was the word ‘nave’. The word descri­bes the cen­tral spa­ce of a church, but shares the same ori­gin as ‘navis’, a ship, and also means the still cen­tre of a tur­ning wheel. Still­ness, amid­st move­ment see­med to embo­dy the pre­pa­ra­tion for prie­sthood. From this, two archi­tec­tu­ral ima­ges emer­ged. The fir­st is the hol­low in the ground as a mee­ting pla­ce of the com­mu­ni­ty. The second is the ship-like struc­tu­re floa­ting abo­ve the tree cano­py, a gathe­ring pla­ce for light and sound. We used the geo­me­try of the ellip­se to reflect the idea of the exchan­ge bet­ween per­fect and imper­fect at the cen­tre of Chri­stian thought. To con­struct an ellip­se the sta­ble cir­cle plays again­st the line. It is about move­ment back and forth. The move­ment, inhe­rent in the geo­me­try, is expres­sed in the cha­pel by the peri­me­ter ambu­la­to­ry. One can walk around the cha­pel, loo­king into the brighter spa­ce in the centre.

The cha­pel, seen from the outsi­de, is a sin­gle sto­ne enclo­su­re. We used Clip­sham sto­ne which is sym­pa­the­tic to the exi­sting lime­sto­ne buil­dings near­by. The base of the cha­pel and ancil­la­ry struc­tu­res are clad in regu­lar cour­ses of ashlar sto­ne. The upper sec­tion of the cha­pel is dres­sed in crop­ped wal­ling sto­ne, laid in a dog-tooth bond. The cha­pel wall is sur­moun­ted by a halo of sto­ne fins. The roof and inter­nal fra­me are self-sup­­po­r­­ting and inde­pen­dent of the exter­nal walls.

The inter­nal tim­ber struc­tu­re is made of glu­la­mi­na­ted spru­ce sec­tions. This struc­tu­re expres­ses the geo­me­tri­cal con­struc­tion of the ellip­se, a fer­ry­ing bet­ween cen­tre and edge with straight lines. As one moves around the cha­pel, an unfol­ding rhy­thm inter­plays bet­ween the columns and the sim­ple ellip­ti­cal walls beyond. The cha­pel can be seen as a ship in a bot­tle, the hid­den nave.

Rela­zio­ne illu­stra­ti­va del progetto
Sca­ri­ca la relazione

Foto inter­ni

Dise­gni tecnici

TOR­NA ALLA PAGI­NA DEI PROGETTI