Detail of the project ed. 2016

water­­fall-chapel / South Pacif­ic Archi­tec­ture Ltd

Design­er  Megan Rule
Loca­tion  North­land, New Zealand
Design Team  

Megan Rule
Year  2006
Pho­to credits  

Ground Sky Photography

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

A small pri­vate space ded­i­cat­ed to spir­i­tu­al pil­grim­age is locat­ed on the edge of a stream over look­ing a 10m high water­fall, sur­round­ed by farm­land and native bush. Accessed by pri­vate farm track, a rel­a­tive­ly flat berm, tum­bles steeply to a pool at the base of the waterfall.
Aware­ness of the water­fall is not imme­di­ate until one has fil­tered through a tall grove of trees. The client, a local farm­ing fam­i­ly wished to wel­come and share the beau­ty and tran­quil­i­ty of the loca­tion with their expand­ing Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty by way of divine leading. 

The built form is gen­er­at­ed by way of coun­ter­bal­ance between a framed tele­scop­ic view of the water­fall and a 7 metre tall ver­ti­cal­ly raked shaft ris­ing up from the entry and fac­ing a glazed cross of light. Entry is via a full width piv­ot­ing door across an arrival bridge into an inti­mate space with tim­ber pal­ings in a range of sym­bol­ic and dynam­ic direc­tions. The tele­scop­ic space adds exposed tim­ber posts and fram­ing to exag­ger­ate per­spec­tive length and view to waterfall. 

Able to accom­mo­date up to 7 peo­ple, with a pro­gram free from the usu­al build­ing ser­vices, a mod­est scale enabled hand build­ing by client and friends with the mate­ri­als and resources at hand. A sim­ple, yet eas­i­ly con­struct­ed space from plen­ti­ful milled tim­ber elim­i­nat­ed the need for oth­er mate­ri­als min­i­mal pres­ence or impact. Like 3 skin kau­ri boat build­ing, lay­ers are craft­ed togeth­er for supe­ri­or strength, enhanced breath­able weath­er tight­ness, and excel­lent acoustic performance. 

The build­ing is set off the ground on a plat­form on tim­ber piles with under­stat­ed agri­cul­tur­al exte­ri­or is clad in board and bat­ten. In con­trast the inte­ri­or has a rich pot pour­ri of oiled timbers.

Both acces­si­ble and remote, this has become a place to ven­ture indi­vid­u­al­ly for con­tem­pla­tive respite or fam­i­ly size communion.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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