After winning at the 2017 Auckland Architecture Awards the Bishop Selwyn Chapel, Holy Trinity Cathedral, by Fearon Hay Architects has gone on to be shortlisted for the 2017 World Architecture Awards in the category of Religion at the Festival in Berlin in September this year.
Fearon Hay did a glowing makeover with a radical departure from the norm in church design. Instead of doors, the new chapel opens its walls on three sides with floor-to-ceiling glass.
As though that wasn’t open enough, the entire south wall disappears at the touch of a button, silently gliding apart as a motorised stacking slider to completely open the space to the air and the sounds of the surrounding garden, oak trees and sky. The ceiling by Studio Carolina Izzo is adorned in more than 50,000 sumptuous gold leafs.
Even if you’re not religious, you can’t avoid the way the material exquisitely reflects the light, layering the space in a deep golden hue. Sublime.
How wonderful to have this truly spectacular building showcased to the world. We wish them the best of luck for September.
