Falklands Memorial Chapel
The Falklands Memorial Chapel is situated in the grounds of Pangbourne College in Reading. It serves as a permanent memorial to service men and women that scarified their lives in the Falklands war in 1982.
The Chapel was designed by Crispin Wride Architectural Design Studio whose overall idea was to create a ‘living’ memorial that is a vision of peace.
The building is almond-like in the shape of a ship, with elegant, curved lines indicating cupped hands in prayer. Clear glass surrounds the curved roof allowing light to diffuse through to the north end memorial stained glass window that depicts the Falkland
Islands.
We were asked to fit out the internal space of the chapel which included building and installing bespoke cupboard units and wooden display frames. This was a particular challenge as there are no straight lines or 180 degree angles inside the building with all the internal walls having a subtle curve that follows the external shape.
To make the bespoke ash units we had to use a combination of modern machine cutting techniques and traditional joinery methods.
There were no measurements relating to the curved walls, so to a certain extent we were working blind. We had to finish the work onsite with traditional carpentry methods of gradually filing the back of the unit so it would fit snug to the wall.
Once installed the results were seamless and the custom built units now house thousands of press cuttings that have been archived over the years.
We had a similar challenge when hanging the wooden display frames on to the walls and we had to space them off the wall using split batons.
The display cases hold over 100 miniature model ships that were kindly donated to the chapel and the framed flag is an original that was rescued from a warship that served in the war.
For more information about the Falklands Memorial Chapel go to:
www.falklands-chapel.org.uk
Falklands Memorial Chapel
The Falklands Memorial Chapel is situated in the grounds of Pangbourne College in Reading. It serves as a permanent memorial to service men and women that scarified their lives in the Falklands war in 1982.
The Chapel was designed by Crispin Wride Architectural Design Studio whose overall idea was to create a ‘living’ memorial that is a vision of peace.
The building is almond-like in the shape of a ship, with elegant, curved lines indicating cupped hands in prayer. Clear glass surrounds the curved roof allowing light to diffuse through to the north end memorial stained glass window that depicts the Falkland
Islands.
We were asked to fit out the internal space of the chapel which included building and installing bespoke cupboard units and wooden display frames. This was a particular challenge as there are no straight lines or 180 degree angles inside the building with all the internal walls having a subtle curve that follows the external shape.
To make the bespoke ash units we had to use a combination of modern machine cutting techniques and traditional joinery methods.
There were no measurements relating to the curved walls, so to a certain extent we were working blind. We had to finish the work onsite with traditional carpentry methods of gradually filing the back of the unit so it would fit snug to the wall.
Once installed the results were seamless and the custom built units now house thousands of press cuttings that have been archived over the years.
We had a similar challenge when hanging the wooden display frames on to the walls and we had to space them off the wall using split batons.
The display cases hold over 100 miniature model ships that were kindly donated to the chapel and the framed flag is an original that was rescued from a warship that served in the war.
For more information about the Falklands Memorial Chapel go to:
www.falklands-chapel.org.uk