Architect: Nord Architecture
Type of works: fibre cement Textura cladding panels used to refurbish church hall.

Nord Architecture were brave and bold with their plans for the refurbishment of a church hall in Scotland but their incorporation of Black fibre cement Textura cladding panels from Marley has been hugely successful.

Originally the Grade II listed parish church was to be refurbished with render and paint, but Nord Architecture, who had not used Marley cladding before, discovered the Textura panels on the Marley website, and their design was seen as such a significant improvement that the planners granted permission with very little discussion.

The refurbishment had become necessary because although the building was sound structurally, cosmetically it had deteriorated and required an upgrade. The brief was to improve the appearance of the concrete and brick extension that was an eyesore in relation to the historic listed building section of the Destiny Church premises.

Nord specified the Black Textura panels and 100m² of them were secretly fixed over the existing brick elevations onto a treated softwood frame using structural adhesives by Kuper Special Building Services to avoid having the appearance of screws and caps.

The overcladding rationalised and simplified the existing extension form. The architect wanted the building to look as monolithic as possible, in contrast to the highly detailed and articulated church with elaborately carved sandstone. Black was chosen as it was neutral and had no association in the local physical context. It was in direct contrast to the sandstone of the church that is weathered into a range of Greys and buffs. The architect liked that the Black building would have no detail or colour variation.

As the panels were pre-cut, the installation was extremely quick. After the framing was in place, the cladding was completed in just 7 days. The whole project took just 4 months.