A black timber building with a steep gable among pines

Cultural · Ålesund, Norway · 2018

Ashgrove Chapel

A dark roof over a room full of light.

Overview

Ashgrove Chapel stands in a grove above the fjord, a steep black gable among the pines. Its cladding was charred on site, a finish that will need nothing for fifty years.

Inside, the room is lined in pale spruce. A single opening in the roof moves light across the walls through the day, and the services are timed to it.

Location: Ålesund, Norway
Year: 2018
Status: Completed
Typology: Cultural
Coordinates: 62.4722° N, 6.1495° E

The light arrives at eleven. The service begins when it reaches the altar.

Halden & Voss

Gallery

A closer look.

Two images. Select any one to see it full screen.

02 / 02Soft light falling across a curved wall

Drawings

Drawn to be built.

Plan, section and elevation, from the porch to the altar, each drawn to scale on the structural grid.

The ground floor, set out on a 6 × 5 m structural grid.24 × 10 m · 3 rooms · 240 m² ground floor

Materials

Made of few things.

Three materials, chosen at the source and left to age. Nothing is painted to look like something else.

Charred Oak
Scorched the old Japanese way, oiled, then left alone. The char is the weatherproofing, and it deepens with every winter.
Low-iron Glass
Without the green cast of ordinary glass, so the landscape reads true from edge to edge.
Fair-faced Concrete
Cast once, in timber formwork we draw ourselves. The tie holes stay: they are how you read the pour.