At the same time, as an alternative approach to the re-use of the building, we explored the conversion of the main volume into a community performance and music rehearsal space, with an adjacent flat that could be used for working residencies by a musician.

                     A new porch will be added to an existing secondary doorway in the transept. It adopts a familiar form and is made with self-finished and robust materials that respond to the rural location, whilst being distinct from the materials of the original building.

                     For the one-bedroom dwelling in the transept, the new porch opens into a double-height living space, leading to a dining table below a bedroom mezzanine. The kitchen and bathroom are located in an existing side extension, beyond a small anteroom, and with direct access to a private garden area.

                     As a community performance and music rehearsal space, the main volume could be configured according to different events and uses, and remains largely unchanged. Doors at the western end of the space would lead to a green room, kitchenette and to WCs.  

                     Often, when a decision is taken to close a church or chapel, and for the building to be sold, it is in order for another to remain open, as parishes increasingly merge. However, as a building type they can be challenging to repurpose viably and appropriately for an alternative use, particularly whilst preserving the character and historic value of the building.  

                     Our project explores the sensitive reuse of a deconsecrated late-Victorian Methodist chapel in a Cotswolds village, within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The building was sold by the Church with outline planning permission for change of use to a single large dwelling. Although the setting is exceptional, the chapel itself is similar to many other rural chapels of the period.

                     At the same time, as an alternative approach to the re-use of the building, we explored the conversion of the main volume into a community performance and music rehearsal space, with an adjacent flat that could be used for working residencies by a musician.

                     A new porch will be added to an existing secondary doorway in the transept. It adopts a familiar form and is made with self-finished and robust materials that respond to the rural location, whilst being distinct from the materials of the original building.

                     For the one-bedroom dwelling in the transept, the new porch opens into a double-height living space, leading to a dining table below a bedroom mezzanine. The kitchen and bathroom are located in an existing side extension, beyond a small anteroom, and with direct access to a private garden area.

                     As a community performance and music rehearsal space, the main volume could be configured according to different events and uses, and remains largely unchanged. Doors at the western end of the space would lead to a green room, kitchenette and to WCs.  

                     For the same volume, configured as a three-bed dwelling, the entrance porch leads to a double-height sitting room with an adjacent open-plan dining area and kitchen below a mezzanine. 

                     The master bedroom is on the mezzanine overlooking the sitting room, and the other bedroom, at the rear, has landscape views. A bathroom and a shower room are within freestanding conical volumes that extend to small roof lights, naturally illuminating and ventilating both spaces. 

                     The proposals adopt a fabric-first energy strategy to reduce energy demand, and minimise CO2 emissions. The chapel envelope will be carefully renovated and thermally upgraded, using a cork-based insulating plaster. New timber-framed secondary glazing will provide both thermal and acoustic benefits. Much of the internal building fabric is to be retained, and many of the existing materials can be re-used. Parquet flooring, for example, can be taken up and re-laid onto a new insulated slab, timber wainscoting can be removed and reinstated. Existing timber screens and partitions are to be retained, whilst other materials can be recycled. New materials have been chosen with consideration to their embodied carbon and future reuse.

                     Heating and hot water will be provided by electric boilers, supported by ground source heat pumps. The building will continue to be predominantly naturally ventilated. Existing wall vents will be reused and upgraded, and opening window hoppers will continue to provide cross-ventilation (with corresponding vents in the secondary glazing). Opening rooflights will promote passive stack ventilation when required, supplemented by mechanical ventilation in kitchen and bathrooms.