2014

Planning Consent for Drayton Green Church

15th January

Piercy&Company has received planning and listed building consent from London Borough of Ealing for the 1,200 sqm Drayton Green Church.

The design for new worship and administrative spaces was commissioned by the International Presbyterian Church (IPC) after they had outgrown their existing premises on the site. The new scheme anticipates congregational growth of up to 200, providing new worship space, community meeting rooms, function space and administrative offices for the IPC. An existing 80-seat Edwardian Grade II listed chapel is retained and cradled within the new scheme.

To accommodate a range of pastoral and community uses simultaneously, Piercy&Company developed a programme of flexible spaces which can be configured as needed. The challenge lay in balancing these pragmatic programming considerations with a spiritual spatial experience. The soaring ceilings and vaulted spaces of traditional church architecture provided a key reference point for the church’s form.

Retention of the listed chapel, located on the southern boundary of the site, guided the scheme. The new building wraps the chapel, linking it to the entrance hall to the front and worship space to the rear, its walls encountered as an unexpected, rustic interior object. In this way, the interior – the main reason for the chapel’s designation – will be preserved and used as a prayer, study and meeting room.

The pleated roof form creates a finer grain, reducing the perception of the building’s massing within a predominantly residential street. As the roof rises towards the front of the site, the folds peak in an abstracted spire, signalling the building’s ecclesiastical function. This roofscape is clad in weathered brass, a practical and expressive material.