Futuna Chapel

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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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.

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.^[7] 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.

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 meeting house or wharenui.^[8] 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 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 and Sainte Marie de La Tourette. 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 60s and 70s that delight in the virtuosic display of carpentry work.

A book about the building called ‘Voices of Silence (New Zealand’s Chapel of Futuna)' ^[9] 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 Māori and European architectural concepts. On one hand it is a modernist building that uses geometrical forms and influences of the Modern Movement. It also represents aspects of a marae, such as a large centre pole and sharply sloping eaves. Walden claimed John Scott achieved a fusion of elements of architecture not seen before.