Futuna Chapel is a building in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand designed by the architect John Scott. Built by the brothers of the Society of Mary, the chapel is named after the Pacific Island of Futuna on which the missionary

Peter Chanel Peter Chanel (12 July 1803 – 28 April 1841), born Pierre Louis Marie Chanel, was a Catholic priest, missionary, and martyr. Chanel was a member of the Society of Mary or "Marists" and was sent as a missionary to Oceania. He arrived on the is ...

, to whom the project is dedicated, was martyred in 1841. It was awarded the New Zealand Institute of Architects gold medal in 1968 and its 25-year Award in 1986. The Historic Places Trust has placed it on its register as a Category 1 Historic Site.

History

The Society of Mary's Karori Centre was formed in 1948 by converting an Edwardian villa previously owned by Sidney Kirkcaldie of Kirkcaldie & Stains Ltd. In 1958 Hawke's Bay architect John Scott was approached to design the Futuna Retreat Chapel. The Chapel was built in 1961 by the brothers themselves, with the only sub-contractor being an electrician.

Siting

The building was originally located on a property at 62-66 Friend Street, Karori, Wellington. Set back from the street, the building is entered from the north-west corner. The Chapel was then situated between three existing buildings, an administration block and two accommodation blocks.

Construction

Floors are of concrete slab construction and paved with flagstones internally. The walls are a combination of in-situ concrete and concrete block. Walls have a rough plaster finish both inside and out, and concrete block walls are left exposed. The roof is of timber framed construction and was originally clad with asbestos shingles. The main roof is supported by a central timber post and braced with timber struts. The ceiling features exposed rafters and timber sarking. The triangular clerestory windows are formed of gridded clear and coloured perspex. The pews are made of concrete supports and timber benches.

Significance

In Futuna Chapel, John Scott employed a composite language that references a number of different architectural traditions. The central timber post can be seen as an interpretation of the centre posts of the traditional

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

meeting house or

wharenui A wharenui (; literally "large house") is a communal house of the Māori people of New Zealand, generally situated as the focal point of a ''marae''. Wharenui are usually called meeting houses in New Zealand English, or simply called ''whare'' ( ...

. The steeply pitched roof forms also allude to the entry porch of the wharenui, with its prominent sweeping barge boards (maihi). The influence of

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

may be discerned in the rough plastered concrete work, exposed concrete beams and the way the interior is dramatized by light brought into the building by high windows. Precedents may be seen at both

Ronchamp Ronchamp () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is located between the Vosges and the Jura mountains. Mining Museum Mining began in Ronchamp in the mid-18th century and had ...

and

Sainte Marie de La Tourette Sainte Marie de La Tourette is a Dominican Order priory, located on a hillside near Lyon, France, designed by the architect Le Corbusier, the architect’s final building. The design of the building began in May 1953 and completed in 1961. The comm ...

. Care is taken to clearly express the junctions of different materials by negative detailing and the projection of beams past their point of support. The use of diagonal symmetry, gridded planning and modular dimensions all relate the building to both high modernism and classical architecture. The roof structure is exposed within the building, and the means of support are made explicit in the gothic tradition of a battle against gravity. The extensive use of timber for the roof, with exposed sarking, struts and rafters is typical of architect designed New Zealand houses of the 60's and 70's that delight in the virtuostic display of carpentry work. A book about the building called ‘Voices of Silence (New Zealand’s Chapel of Futuna)' was published by Victoria University Press 1987. The author was Russell Walden, then a Reader in the History of Architecture at Victoria University in Wellington. In the book, Walden sets out his thesis that the building represents a blending of

and European architectural concepts. On one hand it is a

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

building that uses geometrical forms and influences of the

Modern Movement Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. It also represents aspects of a

Marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...

, such as a large centre pole and sharply sloping

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

. Walden claimed John Scott achieved a fusion of elements of architecture not seen before.

Current condition

In 2000, the Society of Mary had no further use for the Futuna Retreat and sold it to Wellington builder Art Potter. Subsequently, the buildings surrounding the chapel were removed and replaced with

medium-density housing Medium-density housing is a term used within urban planning and academic literature to refer to a category of residential development that falls between detached suburban housing and large multi-story buildings. There is no singular definition of m ...

units designed by Hunt Davies Tennent Ltd. The chapel itself was protected from demolition by the Wellington District Plan. While the 66 residential properties now forming Futuna Village were being built, the chapel was used to store materials. While tarnished, most of the fixtures and fittings remain in good condition, but Jim Allen's centrepiece wooden sculpture of the Crucifixion disappeared. In early September 2012 the missing Crucifixion sculpture was discovered by police on a farm in the Taranaki district. It was reinstalled in the building in early 2013 after being refurbished by the National Museum of New Zealand. Concern about the building's future came from many quarters, leading to the formation of the Friends of Futuna Charitable Trust spearheaded by Simon Mclellan. After lengthy negotiations, an agreement was reached in 2006 between the Friends of Futuna Charitable Trust and Futuna Ltd for the sale of the Chapel and the parcel of land that it sits on to the Trust. A conservation plan has been developed by the Trust to carry out repairs and refurbishments so that the building can be appreciated as originally designed. The building fabric presents a number of challenges such as rot in some windows and externally exposed timber framing. The original asbestos diamond shaped roofing shingles were replaced by metal roofing tiles some time in the past which are unsympathetic to the architecture, and the search continues for a suitable solution. An accessible toilet was recently added to the building to enable a wider range of events to be hosted. Image:Futuna_Chapel_NW.jpg, Viewed from northwest Image:Futuna_Chapel_SW.jpg, Viewed from southwest Image:Futuna_Chapel_S.jpg, Viewed from south Image:Futuna_Chapel_SE.jpg, Viewed from southeast (from road) Image:Futuna_Chapel_roof_glass_detail.jpg, External glass roof panel Image:Futuna_interior_altar.jpg, Interior view towards the altar Image:Futuna_Chapel_int_stained_glass.jpg, Interior view towards roof

Notes

External links

Dedication site to John Scott.

Friends of Futuna Trust.
* {{NZHPT, 7446, Futuna Chapel

A Grave Concern, Bishop Jim White
Roman Catholic churches in Wellington City Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in the Wellington Region Chapels in New Zealand Listed churches in New Zealand 1960s architecture in New Zealand Roman Catholic churches completed in 1961 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in New Zealand