'A helping hand'

'The low cost refurbishment of a Roman Catholic chapel in Lancashire reflects a growing architectural trend for small scale, low budget ecclesiastical commissions, as revealed in a recent survey.

'Frank Lyons' refurbishment of a side chapel in the sacred heart church, Hindley Green, Lancashire, allows a modernist method of traditional worship. The church already had a statue of the sacred heart in the side chapel. With its votive candles it was more for sedentary use rather than for processional services. The lack of function, says Lyons, led to a "narrative" architecture.

'The Sacred Heart statue is mounted in front of a new alcove at the end of the chapel. Here the walls have been tapered in and the ceiling dropped to create a perfect square, using a plywood frame covered in 75mm acoustic plaster applied to a 75mm backing of plaster render. A gap between the two planes contains lighting. The backdrop is painted white and the surface animated with a set of gentle undulations. Lyons says the perfect square "suggests that the godhead can be temporarily captured by the geometry of man" while the undulations "suggest the absolute moving from the stillness of pure consciousness to the movement of relative experience". The statue stands on a bridge of unfinished sawn timbers, glued into random positions and screwed from behind. It represents 'the cross on which the risen Christ now stands'. On the floor lie plain grey diamond mirrors on a base of plywood and neoprene cushions - "reflection of the Godhead" - out of which emerge serpentine, black iron rods. These welded to bars on the cross arm of the bridge, hold 20 differently sized votive candle holders. Each is made from beaten copper, hammered into a thin broken edge, with an irregular, copper rod grid inside to support candles. The base of each bowl is left black and its inside is polished, "reflecting the light of the Godhead".'

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