Project & design lead - Design Engine Architects - 2017

This commission was to oversee a complete restoration of the 19th century internal and external fabric, including a new altar and font. In addition, the University required a small side chapel - social meeting space. The brief was to create a very special project, to sit as a small ‘jewel’ in the heart of the campus.

We undertook a number of stakeholder workshops to develop narratives behind the new interventions (altar and font) and the theme behind the side chapel. This was conceived as a reliquary box, the highly decorated metalwork casket commonly used in medieval times to preserve and deify the remains of saints. These commonly resembled a miniature house.

The side chapel has a gold perforated skin, with a pattern based on the window tracery within the original building. This provides a dynamic reflective veil, that also allows light from within to pass through its diaphanous surface.

https://vimeo.com/218987516

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