The building collects and connects two Kapiti parishes and three former churches under one roof with the design showing the parishes' intention to play an inclusive and open role in the Kapiti community.

Themes of openness and connectivity are shown inside where the central gathering space connects directly to both the smaller chapel and larger nave, allowing seamless flexibility.

"The team at DLA were thrilled to have their efforts recognised by receiving the award for Public Architecture," DLA director Glenn Gardiner said.

"It was a splendid project to be involved in and was a huge team effort from the clients, consultants and building contractors, in creating the captivating building outcome for the Our Lady of Kapiti Parish.

Source: NZ Herald

Catherine McAuley Centre at Villa Maria College received an award in the public architecture category.

The jury noted of this project, "The building's pleated corten cladding references the memory of Catherine McAuley and her protective shawl and provides an exterior that changes in colour and depth, giving a strong sculptural presence to the building.

"A sanctuary garden at the centre of the building creates an outdoor space within the interior that is the focus of a new kind of contemplation and prayer, rich in symbolism and informed by the bi-cultural teaching history of the Sisters."

Cathedral Grammar Junior School received an award in the education category.

The judges commended the architects for the "immense patience and diligence coupled with serious architectural skill" needed to complete this project.

They noted, "Any building that allows children to play on its roof is a winner.

"Proportion and composition have been impeccably resolved to a high level of accuracy; structure and spaces are in full harmony.

"Students at this school have a close relationship with their teachers and seem to thrive. Colour, texture and even the smell of the timbers are all inspirational."

The awards were part of the peer-reviewed New Zealand Architecture Awards Programme run by the NZ Institute of Archi­tects.

There were 34 winners, from seven categories chosen by a jury of five architects.

Source

• facebook
• architecturenow.co.nz
• Image: architecturenow.co.nz

Apartments, houses, office blocks, a library and other public buildings are on the list of the Institute of Architects' Auckland branch winners,

The biggest surprise in the top 48 buildings was an anonymous client's fancy new tomb in the Waikumete Cemetery. Continue reading

Bishop Barry Jones has issued "The House of God", to inform and guide Christchurch diocese in the task of building churches.

Aimed at parishes wanting to build or repair and strengthen a church since the earthquakes, the document emphasises that churches in the diocese will be beautiful, traditional and places of worship and prayer.

Bishop Jones echoed Vatican II's Sacrosanctum Conciliam (124) in calling the church building "the House of God".

He said such buildings should be able to be recognised as Catholic churches.

"It is a sacred place set aside for the sublime prayer of the liturgy and for personal private prayer. It is not a multipurpose building."

"The church building itself should reflect the transcendence of God, the beauty of his holiness and the divine truth he has entrusted to his Church."

Describing the altar as the "point of convergence of all that happens in a church", Bishop Jones wrote that "it is not correct historically to claim that in early Christian churches the altar was at the centre, nor should it be".

"Rather it should be at head of the assembly and the church building ought not be in the shape of a theatre or a stadium," he wrote.

"Generally modernist styles have not served the liturgy well. In building a new church parishes should seek architects capable of using traditional styles . . . but not simply replicating a particular church," the document continues.

Examples of suitable styles include Gothic (Darfield) and Classical Revival (Cathedral).

At several points in the document, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal is cited.

The document also states the essential division in a church is between sanctuary and nave.

"This reflects the differentiation of the ministry which derives from Holy Orders and the ministries which derive from Baptism and Confirmation."

The document also states pews are to have kneelers and confessionals should be visible, but should afford privacy to penitents who desire it.

Source

• Christchurch diocese
• Image: 3 News

Yet they are among the more striking sights you'll find on the furthest-flung islands in the South Pacific.

It's hard to get further away from anywhere than Futuna, the mountainous 32-square-mile speck of land that forms part of the French overseas collectivity of Wallis and Futuna.

The jungle-clad island is still divided into two traditional kingdoms — Alo and Sigave — that are fortunately no longer mostly at war, and its only link with the outside world is by small turbo-prop plane and the occasional ship to Wallis, about 150 miles to the north-east and itself pretty far off the traveller's beaten track.

But if you brave the distance and airline schedules, you'll be amazed by the fanciful stone churches that now grace the bays and hills of an island whose warrior inhabitants are credited with allegedly woolfing down the whole population of the nearby islet of Alofi in one cannibal sitting in the 19th century.

In Sausau, a stone's throw from Leava, the island's main town and capital of Sigave, a triple towered semi-pagoda-like church adorned with red turrets and baby blue balustrades rises on a leafy headland against precipitous green escarpments and a craggy mountain backdrop — straight out of Disney's Magic Kingdom. Continue reading

Source: Huffington Post Travel

Image: Mike Arkus/HuffingtonPost

Mike Arkus worked for more than four decades as a Reuters journalist, much of it as foreign correspondent, based in posts as disparate as France and Cuba, Israel and Brazil.

The office will provide advice, encouragement and guidance, but it will not attempt to impose specific styles, according to Marist Father Anthony Ward, undersecretary of the congregation.

"The Church has always adopted local artistic, architectural and music styles," Father Ward told Catholic News Service. At the same time, as the Second Vatican Council taught, "it always has emphasised Gregorian chant as the homegrown music of the Latin rite."

The Second Vatican Council's document on the liturgy said, "The Church has not adopted any particular style of art as her very own; she has admitted styles from every period according to the natural talents and circumstances of peoples, and the needs of the various rites."

The council called for the preservation of the great liturgical art of the past and the encouragement of modern artists to create pieces appropriate for Catholic worship, "provided that it adorns the sacred buildings and holy rites with due reverence and honour".

The changes in the congregation were introduced just one year after Pope Benedict XVI issued his motu proprio Quaerit Semper on September 27, 2011.

This took away two of the matters for which the congregation had previously been responsible — to do with the invalidity of priestly ordination and the dispensation for contracted but unconsummated marriages — and put the Roman Rota in charge of these.

In the motu proprio, the Pope explained: "In present circumstances it has seemed appropriate for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments to focus mainly on giving a fresh impetus to promoting the Sacred Liturgy in the Church, in accordance with the renewal that the Second Vatican Council desired, on the basis of the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium."

The new office for liturgical art, architecture and music will become operational in the new year.

Sources:

Vatican Insider

Catholic News Service

Image: Corpus

The team will be tasked to put a stop to garage-style churches and boldly shaped structures and, it is reported, will have the judicial powers of the Congregation for Divine Worship to act.

There is a view in the Vatican that in recent decades, churches have been substituted by buildings that resemble multi purpose halls. Too often, architects, even the more famous ones, do not use the Catholic liturgy as a starting point and thus end up producing avant-garde constructions that look like anything but a church.

The announcement comes just days after the US Diocese of Orange purchased the Crystal Cathedral.

The team will also be responsible for the further study of music and singing that accompany the celebration of Mass.

Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, and Benedict XVI, consider this work as "very urgent".

In his motu proprio, Pope Benedict explained he wanted the Congregation for Divine Worship and the discipline of the sacraments to be mainly devoted to giving fresh impetus to the promotion of the Church's sacred liturgy, according to the renewal required by the Second Vatican Council since the establishment of the Sacrosanctum Concilium.

The dicastery must therefore devote itself to "giving fresh impulse" to the promotion of the liturgy, giving it the focus insisted upon by Benedict XVI, including and above all by showing an example.

The year 2012 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the year after that will mark the 50th anniversary of the first approved conciliar text, the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium on the sacred liturgy.

Sources

• Vatican Insider
• New Liturgical Movement
• Image: Pics Site