Designed by architect John Scott in 1958, Futuna Chapel is a modernist sanctum and retreat centre built by the Marist Brothers of the Society of Mary. Created as a place for silence and inner renewal, its name commemorates St. Peter Chanel who was martyred on Futuna Island, French Polynesian, in 1841. Construction was undertaken by a team of six Marist brothers led by Brother Joseph Kelly, with volunteers from various Wellington Catholic communities. Scott designed the construction methods so they were within the skillsets of the untrained builders. The chapel was formally opened on 19 March 1961.

“John Scott’s vision, using clerestory windows set high in a dynamically folded cruciform roof to bathe an unadorned interior in shifting coloured light, was initially challenging for the Marist brothers to accept. The simplicity of the interior layout – two banks of pews at right angles face a rough-hewn granite altar on a corner platform diagonally across from the entrance – belies the emotional power of the room. A small side altar is recessed into each of the four walls. Roof struts radiate from a central post, referencing Māori pou tokomanawa; and exposed rafters and sarking recall vernacular woolshed design.”

Source: Heritage New Zealand - Futuna Chapel

Scott commissioned Jim Allen to produce four artworks for the chapel, off the back of the pair’s prior collaboration for the Our Lady of Lourdes church in Havelock North (1958). The works for Futuna were Allen’s largest commission at the time, and include coloured windows (seen here), Stations of the Cross, a carved Christ figure, and light modulators.

In 2001, the Society sold the chapel and its surrounding campus to a Wellington property developer who proceeded to replace existing structures with medium-density housing units. The chapel itself was protected from demolition by the Wellington District Plan.

Concern about the building's future came from many quarters, leading to the establishment of the Friends of Futuna Charitable Trust in 2003. In 2006, following lengthy negotiations, the Trust purchased the chapel and took over its operation and ongoing conservation and maintenance.

Futuna Chapel was awarded the New Zealand Institute of Architects gold medal in 1968, and was the recipient of the inaugural 25-Year Award from the Institute in 1986. It was recognised as a Category 1 Historic Site by The Historic Places Trust in 1999.

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The coloured perspex windows to the Chapel were designed by Jim Allen and fabricated and installed by the Society of Mary building brothers. Allen prepared coloured ‘cartoons’ of his design on graph paper, showing their configuration and layout. The Marist building team of Society of Mary brothers then made the windows from these ‘cartoons’.

The plexiglass was designed to be cut to fit into small rectangular sections between the vertical mullions of the window frames. These could then be slid into place between aluminum extrusions attached to the mullions. The order of the colours was based on certain colours being recessive and others advancing. Some narrow slits of clear glass were additionally interposed, with the intention that they would flash a sparkle of clear sunlight when hit by the sun.

Of the six triangular, multi-coloured, glazed panels, four form part of the exterior wall enclosing the building interior.

The plexiglass was donated by ICI New Zealand. Allen would later complete a mural for ICI House on Molesworth St, Wellington (Copper Crystals, 1968).

The Chapel is open to the public on the first Sunday of each month.

See also:

• Futuna Chapel [WCC: Wellington Heritage website]

• Futuna Trust [official website]

• Futuna Chapel: Heritage Place Category 1 [Heritage New Zealand listing]

• Jim Allen, Phil Dadson, and Tony Green, The Skin of Years (Clouds & Michael Lett: 2014)

• Nick Bevin and Gregory O’Brien, ‘Futuna: Life of a Building’ (Te Herenga Waka Victoria University Press: 2016)