A case study from a piece on church design featured in Manplan 5: Religion
Manplan 5 was originally published in March 1970, and was republished online in May 2016. Read the full piece on church design here
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Like St. Antonius, the Anglican church of St. Joseph the Worker, Northolt (Architects Murray and Maguire) is emphatically a church. It is more traditional too than either that have gone before in its relatively high enclosing walls. Also, because the walls are well lit, it is the space you notice, rather than the people. But this really only applies to the observer: to the participant in a service, the plan itself, fixes attention on the action. Despite the substantial height round the walls, the projection outwards at ground-floor level gives a human scale. An analogous effect is obtained outside: the bulk has the advantage of a monumental form but the two splays draw it back to relate with the adjacent houses.
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