Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
87522
Building Number
Grade
II
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
02/04/2007
Date of Amendment
02/04/2007
Name of Property
St David Lutheran Church
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Cardiff
Community
Fairwater
Town
Locality
Easting
314018
Northing
177474
Street Side
E
Location
On Fairwater Green in the centre of the Community.
Description
Broad Class
Religious, Ritual and Funerary
Period
History
The church was designed by Vernon Kinch of Alex Gordon and Partners, and opened in August 1961. There was a Lutheran community in central Cardiff in the C19, but the one in western Cardiff dates only from the mid C20, associated with new housing development in Fairwater. The building is influenced by the Liturgical Movement, applying the clarity of modernism to the expression of ritual function. It is distinguished by a clearly articulated plan, the honest expression of structure and materials, and the subtle ordering of light. The building has been re-windowed with plastic units, and there have been some minor changes to joinery, but it is otherwise unaltered.
Exterior
Brown brick with a shutter cast concrete frame and roof structure. Elegantly understated design. West entrance with north church hall and offices, these have a higher floor level but a lower roof-line. The west elevation has a blind wall flanked by strip windows, low pitch gable with gull-wing roof in concrete. The south wall is blind; the chancel is both higher and wider than the nave with windows in the returns and across the roof. The east wall is blind but is canted.The north wall is covered by the single storey hall and offices which have their own large windows. All windows have been replaced by plastic framed ones with some alteration of appearance to the hall.
Interior
Painted brick walls, unpainted concrete frame and ceiling. The most dramatic effect is the concealed natural lighting at the east end, comparable to the top-lit interior of the Coychurch Crematorium. Up steps and through wooden screens to the hall on the north side. Polished concrete flag floor. Shuttered concrete font, lectern and altar. Fixed wooden pews with side aisles only. Only the coloured glazing is a significant alteration.
Reason for designation
Included as an exceptional church design characteristic of the post-war period in its fusion of Liturgical Movement thinking with modernist architectural ideas; a disciplined yet expressive composition.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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