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It's over a year since we submitted our planning application for the Epsom URC site - for a new chapel on Church Street and university student accommodation on the rest of the site. By March, planning difficulties led to withdrawal to enable re-negotiation and a free resubmission. Sometimes the simplest solutions can be best, and so, by the end of 2009, a re-application was made for just the chapel design—Unity Hall remaining, and the space between the two becoming a church garden.
The design for the chapel is inspired by light and lightness. Quality of light is behind all great ecclesiastical designs from dramatic Gothic cathedrals to more gentle glowing masterpieces of today in Switzerland, Japan and Denmark. The design for our chapel aims to maximise light - filling a modest architecture with a translucent pure whiteness on the street that leads towards the Downs. The chapel is designed to have a gentle night-time glow - LED lighting powered by roof-mounted solar cells.
The ratio of worship to community space is adjustable, with the sanctuary seen as a 'wooden box' within the overall glazed envelope of the building - the walls of the box being hinged (open forms a full worship area, closed maximises the community space). Windows at the rear of the chapel look out onto the garden which is for all - safe play for toddlers from Unity Hall and a place to sit and relax.
From Eighteenth Century Meeting House to Victorian Church and 1960's refurbishment, the site has been a valuable Christian base and community resource for over 300 years. Whilst we do not know the outcome of the planning application (expected by the end of March) - nor of deliberations on the future of the congregations at Epsom and Ewell, we believe that Richard Horden's architectural office and my practice have done their best to set the scene for the possibility of a future chapel.
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