Oxford Terrace Baptist Church

Built as part of the post-quake reconstruction of Christchurch, this building overlooks the Avon River and is the first stage of a multi-use complex for an inner-city congregation. The design seeks to create a ‘garden church’ and in contrast to the private, enclosed realm of most new worship spaces, this project provides an interconnected set of facilities for on-site residents, parishioners, and the wider community. Typologically, the project most resembles a medieval monastery, where residents and the surrounding urban community interact in a daily cycle of living, work, worship, and service to the community.

The complex includes parish offices, a hall, kitchen, lounge, and meeting rooms. A public café is located on the busy street frontage, and social service agencies occupy the upper floor, the rental on these office spaces financially supporting the work of the congregation. The worship spaces include a multi-use auditorium, chapel, and children’s room. The auditorium is defined by a single huge window giving views past the garden and established trees to the city skyline beyond. Within, the auditorium has a square plan and relocate-able staging, arranged so that different orientations of the audience in the space suit different types of gathering. The space also opens directly onto an enclosed garden, allowing worship activities to easily spill outdoors. Upcoming stages of the complex will include apartments of various types, further offices for social service agencies, and a childcare facility, all arranged around a cloister.

The project was relatively low budget. The exposed wooden structure of auditorium – LVL beams and columns support a CLT roof – seeks to extend New Zealand’s tradition of timber gothic churches. The remainder of the building was built with raw materials – a concrete floor, exposed concreted block walls, and ceilings of standard precast beams with timber infill.

The building replaces one destroyed in the Christchurch earthquake season, but which had been continuously occupied for 130 years. In designing this project, the desire was to create a facility that could adapt to evolving needs of that same organization over a century or more.

To reduce energy use, the walls are insulated above code, and cooling and ventilation is primary natural, with all spaces having open-able windows. The complex makes use of the high ceiling in the auditorium – high-level windows creating a chimney effect that expels hot air in summer. Exposed concrete floors placed in relation to windows create thermal mass that evens out internal temperature fluctuations and reduces the need for artificial heating. Materials have been chosen both to minimize the need for finishing layers and coatings – that is, most surfaces are ‘raw’ - and to minimize maintenance.

There is a strong strand of what might be called “social sustainability” in the project. The complex is intended to support community life in the inner city, includes facilities have for social service agencies. Further, the complex is designed to foster a sense of community among its various users – congregation, church staff, social agency staff, neighbors, and various visitors to the building.  Future stages to the site will include spaces for housing (including social housing), further space for social agencies, and childcare facilities.

CLIENT Oxford Terrace Baptist Church

LOCATION Christchurch

YEARS 2014-2018

PROJECT TEAM Andrew Barrie, Nathan Swaney, WooMin Lee

CONSULTANTS Structural Engineer: Holmes Consulting, Ruamoko Solutions; Geotechnical Engineer: Golder Associates; Civil Engineer: Powell Fenwick Consultants; Services Engineer: Powell Fenwick Consultants; Fire Engineer: Powell Fenwick Consultants; Quantity Surveyor: Barnes Beagley Doherr; Landscape Design: Canopy; Surveyor: Fox & Associates; Acoustics: Marshall Day Acoustics

CONSTRUCTION TEAM General Contractor: Contract Construction

PHOTOGRAPHY Patrick Reynolds, Jamie Armstrong