Mustangs and Beacon Church
The Beacon Church is a recently ‘planted’ Church in Whitehill & Bordon led by an Anglican Vicar and Methodist Deacon. The Church’s vision is for a modern building, open 7 days a week, that becomes a place community events and worship in a growing community and as a base for outreach work such as youth work, town centre chaplaincy.
UPL worked closely with the regeneration company and the church to determine the design requirements for the new Church, interpreting the Church form of worship into a building configuration and three-dimensional form for a specific site in the town.
The Church has food and music central elements to its worship so the main spaces are the café and the main worship hall, with the café is designed to be the Church’s public face, welcoming visitors from the adjacent public space. The café forms a fluid area that provides the key connectivity to the main worship hall, the community food garden and the private garden. Modern worship also includes 24-hour access to a prayer room, which can be accessed via the private garden.
The building concept proposes a modern, expressive, sculptural architecture with the main worship hall volume wrapped with the lower massing of the café, offices and ancillary spaces and a focal point created by the ‘Beacon’ tower, that provides a dramatic feature to announce the Church to the wider area.
“I love the way that you have combined the social and sacred aspects of church for the post-modern context. It truly expresses the open invitation at the heart of the community that will be expressed through the very approachable and inclusive ministry of Beacon Church.” Jens Mankel Church Planting and Fresh Expressions Advisor.