Futuna Chapel

Futuna Chapel is a small retreat chapel in Karori, Wellington, New Zealand, designed by the Hawke's Bay architect John Scott for the Society of Mary and built in 1961 by the brothers of the order themselves, with an electrician as the only sub-contractor. It is named after the Pacific island of Futuna, where the missionary Peter Chanel, to whom the project is dedicated, was martyred in 1841. The floors are concrete slab paved with flagstones, the walls combine in-situ concrete and concrete block with a rough plaster finish, and the steeply pitched timber-framed roof is carried on a central timber post with timber struts and triangular clerestory windows. Scott drew on several traditions at once: the centre post and sweeping eaves echo a Maori meeting house, the roughly plastered concrete and dramatic high light recall Le Corbusier, and the exposed roof structure follows the Gothic habit of showing how a building resists gravity. It won the New Zealand Institute of Architects gold medal in 1968 and its 25-year award in 1986, and it is a Category 1 historic place. After the Society of Mary sold the site in 2000 the surrounding buildings were replaced by housing, and the Friends of Futuna Charitable Trust later acquired the chapel to conserve it.