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, Stations of the Cross, a carved Christ figure, and light modulators (seen here).

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 (now called the Futuna Chapel 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 light modulators above the entry doors to the Chapel were designed on Scott's request, who felt there was too much afternoon light coming into the chapel above the entry doors. Scott’s working drawings had not addressed this part of the building in any significant detail, so he asked Allen to develop a concept for handling the excess afternoon light. Fortunately, and coincidentally, Jim had been working on various experiments with modulation of light and provided a ‘cartoon’ of a complex three dimensional light modulator to be installed above each entry door. These modulators were constructed from rimu timber, glass and light yellow Perspex.

Each of the light modulators is 9.6m² in area and, like the Perspex windows, form part of the exterior wall enclosure of the building.

Scott and Allen both admired Le Corbusier’s 1954 Roman Catholic chapel in Ronchamp, France, where the building’s pierced walls cut into the structure’s volume. A 1960 commission for Auckland Art Gallery enabled Allen to explore this concept in his own practice by making a sculpture that allowed light to penetrate a solid block. Scott commissioned Allen to design the light modulator for Futuna on the strength of this prior work.

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)

• Jim Allen, ‘Light Modulator’ (1960) [Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki]