Futuna Chapel Trust is delighted to announce the reopening of Futuna Chapel in Karori on Saturday 21 March, following the successful restoration of its distinctive roof, coloured windows and original colour scheme.
Now sporting a stunningly accurate resemblance to the original roof of 1961, the new roof is tiled in Italian porcelain from Fiorano Modenese in Italy held securely by a world first bespoke fixing system designed by architect Dr Peter Parkes and heritage structural engineer, Win Clark.
Project architect and Chapel trustee, Dr Peter Parkes describes the challenge the Chapel faced as urgent.
“The Chapel was reroofed back in 1994 with bituminous tiles which unfortunately didn’t last the distance. Not only were they seriously compromised by wind, but a faulty gutter system resulted in considerable damage to the roofing timbers and spalling of the concrete base. As a result, the integrity of the building was under threat”, says Peter.
To halt the deterioration the Futuna Chapel Trust put together a team led by Dr Parkes, Win Clark and building contractors LT McGuinness who worked under urgency to replace the failing roof tiles with new tiles fabricated by water jet cutting them from Laminam sheets imported from Italy by Laminex.
“These tiles replicate the original white fibre cement asbestos tiles used on the original roof in 1961 but they’re significantly superior in terms of their longevity; they’ll last more than 100 years.”
To fix the tiles, Dr Parkes and Win Clark created a specialised fixing system so that they could move under seismic, wind and thermal forces.
“Effectively the tiles are fixed on a suspension system with rubber bearings between them in the form of rubber packing washers”, describes Peter. “Overall, the roof is a drained cavity system with the tiles acting as a rainscreen, mounted on counter battens on a water resistant FiberTite membrane.”
Additionally, the coloured acrylic windows, which cast unique patterns of coloured daylight, have been strengthened and painted, and new flashings installed.
The restoration project, which has been 10 years in the planning, hasn’t been without surprises and the Trust needs to find another $500,000 to cover the outstanding costs.
“Along the way we discovered much more asbestos in the roof cavity than we had expected. Alongside this, the significant undulations in the roof framing meant the cost of the restoration has been pushed out much more than we anticipated”, says Peter.
To celebrate the completion of this important work, the Chapel will reopen to the public on Saturday 21 March with a series of events beginning with a Māori blessing and followed by a Catholic Mass, honouring the chapel’s spiritual and cultural heritage. At 1:30pm, an official opening ceremony will be held, with the Chapel formally reopened by Wellington Mayor Andrew Little.
The Trust extends its heartfelt thanks to all those who contributed to the restoration, including the skilled team at LT McGuinness, structural engineer Win Clark, Wellington City Council . and architect Dr Peter Parkes as well as the many community supporters who have gifted to the restoration including NZ Lotteries, Stout Trust, Lion Foundation, Nikau Foundation and a number of generous personal trusts, groups and individuals.
Photo credit: Paul McCredie