Shadow House
Providence Chapel is a grade 2* listed building and is located in the centre of the hilltop village of Colerne in the Wiltshire. It was built as a Baptist Chapel in 1867 and was sold to the current owners in August 2004.
The clients who had fallen in love with the building at first sight wanted to change the chapel into a home for their young family. Importantly they wanted to retain the aesthetic of the chapel and the school room without dividing up the generous spaces, whilst providing 4 bedrooms and associated bathrooms for their family. Inso doing they also they wanted the former chapel to connect better with the surrounding garden.
Solution:
Jonathan Tuckey Designs proposal was to remove the additions to the rear of the former school room and construct an entirely timber new building facing the churchyard to the rear. This strategy allowed the chapel volume to be retained for a bright open-plan dayroom, housing kitchen and living room.
To accommodate the changing level of the site it was proposed that the new building was dug into the sloping garden allowing two generous stories to be accommodated without rising above the adjacent building lines. It was intended that the extension match the scale and status of the chapel itself, to compliment not compete. With this in mind it was conceived as a shadow of the existing chapel, the silhouette of the new building, echoing the simple nature of the bath stone structure with a certain reverence.
To compliment the bathstone and slate chapel, the walls and roof of the extension are clad in a blackened timber as a direct reference to the tin tabernacle churches, which are vernacular to the West Country. The blackened timber cladding used on both walls and roofs acts as a rain and sunscreen protection the bitchumin bard beneath. This detail allows the familiar profile of gutters, ridges, upstands and parapets to be concealed beneath the timber lining, leaving a refined silhouette. The main timber used was home grown Western Red Cedar. It was treated with Osmo stain to give it sustainability and longevity.
The majority of the timber used in the project comes from well managed woodland within the Pembrokeshire National Park. The timber for the shutters, doors and fames was imported ‘Douglas Fir’, a highly durable softwood which came from FSCmanaged woodland.
For the interior the weathered chapel floors, chapel pews, timber gallery and wall linings, and clear glass windows have been carefully restored. These were contrasted with new timber kitchen island and dining table. Continuing the language of old and new present on the outside.
Environmental aspects:
The new extension was intended to minimise an environmental impact in its construction. The materials used are largely made from recycled second generation components; composite timber ‘I’ beams using waste timber products were used for the roofs and floors, making it often stronger and more stable than timber and minimising cold bridging.Oriented Strand Board, newspaper are used for the structure and insulation, while pigmented fibre board is used for the floor and internal joinery.
Providence Chapel won ‘Grand Design Awards’ 2009 ‘Best Extension’.
Location: Colerne, Wiltshire, UK
Date Completed: September 2007
History: Grade II* listed Baptist Chapel built in 1867.
Size: 300m2
