Detail of the project ed. 2016

st-thomas-more-catholic-church / JNW Stu­dios ARCHI­TEC­TURE — INTE­RI­OR DESIGN

Design­er	Julian Norman-Webb
Loca­tion	Sara­so­ta, Flori­da, USA
Design Team	JNW Stu­dios ARCHI­TEC­TURE — INTE­RI­OR DESIGN Prin­ci­pal: Julian Nor­­man-Webb AIA, RIBA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C Cobrooke (Archi­tect of Record)
Year	2013
Pho­to credits	FFS_STM_Ext_1_GW.jpg — Greg Wil­son Photo FFS_STM_Ext_2_GW.jpg — Greg Wil­son Photo FFS_STM_Ext_3_RG.jpg — Ryan Gam­ma Photography FFS_STM_Ext_4_RG.jpg — Ryan Gam­ma Photography FFS_STM_Ext_5_JNW.jpg — JNW Studios FFS_STM_Int_1_RG.jpg — Ryan Gam­ma Photography FFS_STM_Int_2_RG.jpg — Ryan Gam­ma Photography FFS_STM_Int_3_GW.jpg — Greg Wil­son Photo FFS_STM_Int_4_GW.jpg — Greg Wil­son Photo FFS_STM_Int_5_GW.jpg — Greg Wil­son Photo

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

This sig­nif­i­cant Church ren­o­va­tion and expan­sion was required to increase capac­i­ty from 800 to 1,400 seats. The result­ing sus­tain­able design and com­po­si­tion con­tin­ues the Mod­ern vocab­u­lary of the exist­ing build­ing. The build­ing main­tains Parish mem­o­ry by cre­ative­ly sal­vaging cer­tain items, reusing the exist­ing struc­ture of the north­ern Chapel and south­ern entry; then, insert­ing the addi­tion in between the two, bring­ing a flood of human ener­gy into the heart of the build­ing, bathed in calm north­ern day­light and warmed by mea­sured quan­ti­ties of direct day­light. The vis­i­ble warm focus of the beech wood clad wall and east win­dow behind the main altar rein­force the focus and sense of cel­e­bra­tion that is the focus of the litur­gy the build­ing is there to house.

The sig­nif­i­cant quan­ti­ties of glaz­ing show that the Church is always ‘open’ and vis­i­ble. In the inte­ri­or, parish­ioners assem­ble in close prox­im­i­ty to the litur­gy. The curved pews on the sloped floor pro­vide a bowl of seats, bring­ing the assem­bly togeth­er with light and nat­ur­al acoustics. The hard cof­fered ceil­ing above absor­pent walls, allows a pro­fes­sion­al can­tor to sing unaid­ed and for the voice of the assem­bly to be heard in hymn and speech. It allows the sound of hand bells to be heard but yet does not echo. It allows an indi­vid­ual to feel con­nect­ed to the whole space and assem­bly. Like­wise, the neu­tral col­or pal­let through­out the Wor­ship Space and Narthex allows the gath­ered assem­bly to be the col­or of the space.

Ulti­mate­ly, the design tries to build on the human­ist and reli­gious val­ues of St. Thomas More, to whom the Church is dedicated.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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