Catholic Chaplaincy QUB, 28-38 Elmwood Avenue, Belfast, BT9 6AY

Catholic Chaplaincy, Queen's University Belfast

A three-storey building with an attic storey, comprising six bays, inserted into a gap in the historic Victorian brick terrace along the southern side of Elmwood Avenue. The building is a Grade B+ listed structure within the Queen's Conservation Area.

The north-west front elevation employs a striking interpretation of the Victorian canted bay window. Six canted bays, steel-framed and single-glazed, are positioned at first and second floor level in dark brown brick, rising above a flat glazed ground floor facade of large plate glass and steel-framed windows. The canted bays are supported by secretively fixed masonry panels sculpted by Ray Carroll; these panels are now painted in matt cream, though originally finished in bronze effect. One panel incorporates a central circular signage panel. The first bay contains glazed aluminium entrance doors accessing the ground floor lobby. As described by David Evans in 'Modern Ulster Architecture', these "prismatic steel and glass forms march along in rhythm with their brickwork neighbours", raising the Victorian form above street level and cantilevering it out in a deliberately un-Victorian manner. The floor-to-ceiling windows at ground level create visual continuity between the street and the cloistered courtyard and chapel beyond the main hall. The ground floor is slightly elevated from street level, aligned with the stepped entrances of adjacent terraced buildings. A raised concrete platform runs the full length of the frontage, accessed via two concrete ramps with tubular steel handrails.

The roof comprises standing seam metal with six regularly spaced, heavily framed squared dormers, each corresponding to a bay below. The north-east and south-west elevations of the main block are blank, facing the adjacent terraced buildings. Brown brick stair towers with flat roofs flank the rear south-east elevation. Aluminium rainwater goods and overflow pipes run symmetrically down the rear facade.

The building steps down immediately from the rear of the main accommodation to single storey, mirroring the pattern of its neighbours. The rear comprises a covered cloister roofed in standing seam copper (latterly repaired with modern materials now showing signs of failure), surrounding an external courtyard. The chapel itself faces north-west onto this courtyard, with clerestory glazing and a standing seam bronze roof with a deep bronze fascia that raises the monopitch roof by a further half-storey from its eaves, reflecting the chapel volume within and following the urban grain of the conservation area.

At second and third floors, the south-west elevations comprise alternating bands of brown brick and black steel-framed single-glazed screens, flush with the brickwork. High-level opening lights retain original ironmongery and fenestration. Concrete structural columns are visible behind the glass to each level. This ribbon glazing treatment continues to the ground floor, where it is faced to cill level in patinated vertical standing seam copper panels, overlooking the courtyard.

The courtyard facades at ground floor level, facing south-west, east, west and north-east, feature a small brick upstand with full-height single-glazed steel-framed windows faced in copper with copper cills. The north-east face of the chapel includes an additional half-storey formed by a clerestory band of single-glazed windows below the deep standing seam bronze fascia. Paired glazed ventilated slats occupy alternating panels at clerestory level, with ventilation controlled by levers within the chapel. A small brick parapet wall at roof level divides the ancillary spaces from the cloister, illuminated internally by three fibreglass pyramidal roof lights. The roof features a copper-lined secret gutter; to the south-west of the courtyard, a projecting needle-shaped copper hopper supported by a slim metal pole feeds rainwater into a concrete pool containing a solid black cross. The courtyard is hard landscaped in gravel with sculptural planting.

A single-storey ancillary block in brown brick stands to the rear of the northernmost bay, with high-level single-glazed windows puncturing the brickwork and timber-slatted plant rooms and access doors serving a service yard extending to the shared alleyway beyond.

Materials include standing seam metal (copper, bronze and lead) to the roof; heavy gauge aluminium and copper rainwater goods; full-height single-glazed screens with metal frames; stretcher-bond brown brickwork; and in situ concrete panels to the front elevation.

The building occupies a section of what was once a continuous Victorian terrace. Though uncompromisingly modern, the large steel-framed glazed bays and eaves line maintain the rhythm and scale of Elmwood Avenue. The depth of the building, the use of brick between canted bays, the employment of dormers and the carefully scaled subservient ancillary buildings to the rear align with the rhythm, pattern, materials and scale of the historic buildings adjacent and in the wider context.