Detail of the project ed. 2020

K2LD – CHRIST METHODIST CHURCH

Design­er	Shiou Hee Ko
Loca­tion	597 East Coast Road, Sin­ga­pore 429082
Design Team	Ko Shiou Hee Char­lotte Wong Lee Jun Xian
Year	2014
Pho­to credits	Patrick Bing­ham Hall

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

Inspired by the chal­lenges of bring­ing tra­di­tion­al ideas around wor­ship into a con­tem­po­rary archi­tec­tur­al con­text, K2LD archi­tects looked to re-imag­ine the tra­di­tion­al church; how new and dif­fer­ent spa­tial con­fig­u­ra­tions could be used to preach the same gospel. The main aspi­ra­tions of the church were dis­tilled into three key points; the need for an image, envi­ron­men­tal respon­si­bil­i­ty, and mul­ti­func­tion­al spaces.

Cre­at­ing an Image
In response to a church’s need to com­mu­ni­cate its mis­sion to the out­side com­mu­ni­ty with a strong image, a slat­ted screen inno­v­a­tive­ly unveils the cross, embody­ing con­tem­po­rary notions of wor­ship and fel­low­ship. At night, illu­mi­nat­ed small cross­es seem to almost dance across its facade, fur­ther inform­ing the entire skin as an icon for the church and community. 

Envi­ron­ment
The screen façade also shades the inte­ri­or spaces from the trop­i­cal cli­mate and pro­vides need­ed ven­ti­la­tion. This allows for the main atri­um space to remain open air, while being shel­tered from the ele­ments. With flu­id wave­like pat­terns inspired by the near­by sea, the slat­ted facade con­di­tion soft­ly envelops the build­ing, veil­ing its func­tions behind a uni­fied front while sup­port­ing its envi­ron­men­tal agen­da. Ver­ti­cal green­ery is strate­gi­cal­ly placed on the east/west facades for opti­mal growth in Singapore’s climate. 

Mul­ti­func­tion­al Program
The design looks to the stack­ing of pro­grams and over­lap­ping rela­tion­ships formed. At the entrance, the build­ing is lift­ed off the ground, allow­ing spaces below to flow through the 1st floor, act­ing as a car park dur­ing over­flow hours and open air event space. Often con­vert­ed into a large open-air din­ing space, it serves as an addi­tion­al gath­er­ing space for the con­gre­ga­tion out­side the main wor­ship halls.
Cir­cu­la­tion is weaved through the spaces of the build­ing; A large stair­case in the cen­tre of the 1st floor brings cir­cu­la­tion and air up through an atri­um formed by asym­met­ri­cal voids carved between floor plates, allow­ing for ver­ti­cal visu­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty across var­i­ous pro­gram­ming areas.
The main wor­ship spaces form the heart of the build­ing on the 2nd and 3rd floors with the atri­um feed­ing into it. Arranged in an audi­to­ri­um style, the wor­ship hall aims to ori­ent the audi­ence to the min­is­ter. Above on the 4th and 5th floors, lie the edu­ca­tion spaces, roof ter­races and out­door play spaces.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

BACK TO PROJECTS PAGE