St Hilda’s Anglican Church

COMMUNITY

24 Apr

In 2017, St Hilda’s Anglican Church in Island Bay approached First Light Studio with a brief describing the need for a beautiful, quality, and timeless design for the existing church. This request followed a one-year ultimatum from the council to address the building's earthquake-prone status.

Recognizing the importance of a larger congregation space and revitalizing the street-front connection with the community, the parish chose to remove the earthquake-prone elements of the brick façade. Additionally, they desired an extension to the nave that would provide more space for the baptismal font, increased seating, and a new façade facing the street.

The new extension respects the sacredness of the Christian church, emphasizing beauty, quality, and a welcoming atmosphere both inside and out. It aligns with the symbolic journey experienced within the church.

By extending the existing weatherboard sides of the church towards the footpath, two nib walls are created, offering shelter for full-height glazing. In front of this glazing stands a golden tessellating veil, adorned with a pattern that represents the history, future, people, and essence of the place and the church.

St Hilda’s Anglican Church's design by First Light Studio integrates architectural elements that honor the church's sacred nature. The design embraces beauty, quality, and a sense of warmth to create an inviting environment for both the congregation and the surrounding community.

Built: 2023
Images: David Hensel
St Hilda’s Church holds significant heritage status, having been completed in 1912 and designed by renowned church architect Frederick de Jersey Clere, known for his work on St Mary of the Angels and numerous other churches in the lower North Island.
In 2012, an assessment revealed the church's severe earthquake-prone condition. Ironically, only the brick front, intended by de Jersey Clere, was constructed to his original plans due to budget constraints. The remaining portions were built with timber weatherboard, with the intention to rebuild in brick when funds allowed. However, this plan never came to fruition.
After years of contemplation within the congregation, in 2017, the decision was made to remove the earthquake-prone brick façade and design an extension to the nave. This extension aimed to provide more space for the baptismal font, increased seating, and a new street-facing façade.
The new façade pays homage to the Māori history of the area, incorporating the Niho motif—a symbolic upward triangle representing mythology, hospitality, and the family houses within a tribe. The Niho motif is ingeniously used to create a pattern that narrates the story of the land (whenua), ocean (moana), sky (rangi), and stars (whetū) used for navigation.
The screen, adorned with these tessellations, is positioned close to the footpath, providing spaces for play and engagement. Delicate perforations at eye level offer detail while ensuring privacy for those inside. As the screen ascends towards the sky, the perforations grow larger, culminating in a nearly transparent top, evoking a sense of lightness and drawing one's gaze towards the heavens.
A strong connection between the interior and exterior is fostered, as sunlight filters through the screen during the day, casting patterns and stories as captivating shadows on the floor. At night, the church radiates as an illuminated beacon, with the screen glowing and the transparent upper sections revealing the beauty of the new and existing interior structure.
Client: St Hilda’s Anglican Church
Builder: Black Sheep Construction
Lighting Designer: Fifth : Season Design
Structural Engineer: King & Dawson Architects & Engineers
Screen Engineering & Manufacturing: by AE Tilley Group
2023 Timber Design Awards
Commercial & Public Building Design Award - Highly Commended
Peoples Choice Award - Highly Commended
Judge’s Citation:
Highly Commended
Replacing the earthquake prone façade designed by renowned architect Frederick de Jersey Clere in 1910 with full height glazing and a anodised aluminium golden tessellated veil is an exciting and bold move. The result is a light filled, warm and welcoming space for the congregation and wider community. New curved Pinus Radiate glulam portals pay homage to the existing dark timber gothic arches. The new timber portals and reused existing timber elements have created a larger modern congregation space with a revitalised connection to the street.
This small but impressive project utilised timber specifically as a solution to some delicate structural issues which enabled a historically sensitive building to retain its integrity while taking on a new outward facing appearance and also improve its ability to survive earthquakes. Tying together the old and the new was achieved using New Zealand timbers tastefully connected with the existing structural system to create a new and improved space for the building users.
Description:
Blending heritage construction with new timber gothic innovation
In 2017 St Hilda’s Anglican Church in Island Bay received a one-year ultimatum from Wellington City Council to earthquake strengthen their existing brick facade or face closure. A healthy church with a lively congregation, St Hilda chose not to close but to continue on, using an all timber solution to keep their church alive. The existing church, designed by renown gothic architect Frederick de Jersey Clere in 1910 had a series of gothic timber arches framing the building. Recognizing the importance of a larger congregation space and revitalising the street-front connection with the community, the parish chose to remove the earthquake-prone elements of the brick façade. They employed First Light Studio to turn this cold, loud and glaring space into a new warm, light-filled, welcoming space.
First Light Studio chose to supplement the original dark timber gothic arches of Clere with a new timber gothic of our modern age, suitable for taking St Hilda into their next century. The design extends the existing weatherboard sides of the church towards the footpath using rough sawn treated pine to imitate the band sawn native weatherboards. Two tall traditional timber framed nib walls shelter the full-height glazing and a golden tessellating veil. The anodised aluminium veil is adorned with a pattern that was developed during collaborative workshops with the congregation to represent the history, future, people, and essence of Island Bay and the church. The key structural feature though is the new timber gothic arches.
Using Pinus radiata glulam timber portals for the structural elements in the new extension was a natural choice. They are a modern and minimalist expression of the existing jarrah trusses in the nave of the church, while also staying true to New Zealand’s historic use of natural materials. The curving portal frames add beauty, quality, and warmth to create an inviting environment for both the congregation and the surrounding community. Rather than a steel portal that would clash with the original design, the new arches effortlessly form a stable structure, joined together at roof level. They are linked to 6 LVL columns at the front that split the facade into five glazed sections, each also supporting the gold screen which is suspended in front of them. The new space is in tune with the sun's path with shadows moving across the floor and walls as the sun sets over the hills, enabling the gothic interplay of curves and shapes to play out to the congregation both inside and out.
Existing elements were re-used where possible; a set of beautiful Jarrah doors were removed prior to demolition and reinstalled after some much needed reparations using recycled jarrah from the church. A matching set of new timber gothic doors was also created opposite, across the nave. St Hilda is once again reborn and the new timber gothic has given this gracious old lady a much needed new approach to life.
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Reading proposals from three architectural firms, it was clear early on that St Hilda's would be working with First Light to tackle the project of seismic strengthening of our nave. The youthful and creative approach was balanced with wisdom and experience amongst their team. While we wanted a sensible design that would last another century, we did not want tedium or mediocrity in the design. The First Light team did not disappoint, from the introductory phase through to our current project near-completion. The team work very well together, collaborating graciously amongst each other and with ourselves. We made significant changes between concept design in 2017 and the preliminary design in 2018, as we navigated the choice of strengthening vs. rebuilding and the choice of materials if rebuild was the option taken. We believe they did very well to balance the art, science and budget in getting us through these stages. We were thankful of how they worked with us on key elements of the design, graciously accepting our sketches, thoughts and suggestions along the way. The team provided their own pragmatism and creativity throughout, providing a strong lead that kept the project together.
As we draw the project to a close over the next month or so, we feel very positive about the five year relationship and journey. First Light folk have shown a deep respect for the special nature of the church project, with a strong sense of commitment. They have put a lot of heart into the job. We felt very included in decision making, at no point feeling pushed around or disrespected. Presentations to the wider parish were well received, dissolving cynicism or insecurity. Their personal approach gave the parish confidence as we progressed through the project. This element of trust was crucial, with such a range of parishioners that we were hoping to satisfy. Achieving unanimous support within the parish for at least the second half of the project helped significantly with collective patience during the building phase, budget commitment and internal fundraising. Parishioners are without exception proud of the result. The wider community is transfixed with recent developments.
A high level of trust and respect developed throughout the project, as we have negotiated many decisions, challenges and developments together. While the team have remained professional at all times, they feel as much like good friends. As the key representative of St Hilda's throughout this project, I can wholeheartedly recommend working with First Light Studio.
Manaaki koe,
Mark
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Rev Mark Henderwood
St Hilda's Anglican Church