The Presbyterian Church and Community Centre are known to locals as The Village. A village needs a central meeting place, where people gather to learn, share and worship. The church is part of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, but The Village is very much in the community (Bryndwr, Christchurch). The church elders and parishioners made the hard decision to build a new church, and retain the current community hall post earthquake. With this decision came fund-raising and sticking to a budget as non-profit organisations do.

The Village in partnership with the architect developed a design that focused on functionality and fresh aesthetic elements. The brief stated that the building caters for capacity, this is where the functionality and use of joinery options paired up. The Altus Windows Systems joinery used in this project can be described as three product types: Baltic Commercial door, Baltic Shopfront 106 and Pacific Thermal – each has a story to tell.

The statement church entrance features two matching bi-fold doors positioned at either side of the central pillar, each with an additional door for fire egress.  When open, the large entrance space created is further enhanced by the flush-to-floor sill design. What makes this space even more adaptable is the second set of internal bifold doors opening into the main space. When opened up, the inside bifold doors create a 10 metre wide by 2.4m high clear opening that maximises connection to the street.

The Baltic Shopfront 106 external façades created the opportunity to install external cladding panels and the windows were designed to control privacy while accentuating the exposed timber structure behind.

The fresh aesthetic demonstrates the advantage of a design that channels natural light into the interior. To further enhance this, the Nebulite Team supplied and installed a 25-metre x 10-metre crucifix-shaped roof light. Due to its thermal advantages, the Pacific Thermal system was the obvious selection for the roof light. This system offers benefits to thermal insulation and significantly reduced condensation. The thermally broken frame has a polyamide strip that acts as a barrier to reduce heat and cold transfer.

Location - Christchurch
Architect/ Designer - Gordon Dalkie
Industry Sector - Commercial
Systems - Pacific Thermal, Baltic Commercial door, Baltic Shopfront 106
Fabricator - Nebulite Garden City, Christchurch
Products - Bifold Doors, Roof Window