The Lighthouse Church in Heswall wins Merseyside Civic Design Award

The Lighthouse Church won 'Best New Building' at the Merseyside Civic Design Awards who held a ceremony at the Liverpool Arts Bar on Tuesday, November 28.

Architects shedkm worked closely with The Parish of Heswall to design the brand new church and community building, to accommodate a wide range of church outreach and community events including concerts, exhibitions, playgroups, youth activities, classes, counselling, advice and community support services – alongside regular worship activities.

Embracing the concept of hospitality already embraced by the church congregation, the design "creates a new relationship with the existing high street and wider Heswall community, with extensive glazing facing the street which invites people to step inside".

The new building has a "distinctive identity and a strong presence within Heswall, contributing to its setting through high-quality architecture and materials, as well as the daily life and activity visible through the carefully positioned glazing".

Inside the church (Image: shedkm)

As the first new public building in the town for over 50 years, the Lighthouse Church was designed to be a "bold intervention" and to "provide an opportunity for a renewed Christian presence and sense of community in Heswall."

The Civic Design Awards

The Civic Design Awards focused on "high-quality projects that enhance shared experiences of the places that surround us".

Inaugurated this year to mark the 85th anniversary of Merseyside Civic Society and launched on National Civic Day, any project completed between August 1 2018 and  July 31 2023 within Liverpool City Region was eligible for nomination.

After nominations were submitted by members of the public, a panel of independent judges visited shortlisted projects in October before deciding the joint winners as The Lighthouse Church, designed by shedkm for the Parish of Heswall and LJMU Student Life & Sport Buildings, designed by Sheppard Robson.

The church (Image: shedkm)

Rev Martin Cannam, Parish of Heswall, said: "shedkm placed our core values of hospitality, worship and service to the community at the heart of the design, understanding our vision and leading us to change the name to The Lighthouse Church.

"Our desire for people to experience the church in a new way, feeling welcome where previously excluded, is already evident.

"The new church building’s innovative architecture is enabling us to express the church’s life and worship with an openness that has only now become possible, and it’s great to see this recognised in the Merseyside Civic Design Awards." 

Singing café (Image: Heswall Parish)

'We are absolutely thrilled to win this award'

Darren Jones, Associate Director at shedkm, added: "The design of the new Lighthouse Church provides a building to support and revitalise community usage and engagement and to serve the needs of the parish.

"The heart of our design approach is about embracing the Church’s established ethos of welcome and hospitality, combined with improving the Church’s presence on the street to create a sense of place with a strong new identity.

"We are absolutely thrilled to win this award, especially to have been nominated by members of the public. It was a fantastic team effort with a trusting and supportive client. The Church is already proving to have a significant positive impact on the wider community."

The Design Awards judges said: "The interior is tardis-like, providing social, community and worship spaces of generous proportions, cleverly linked to allow porosity between one space and another.

"The planning is assured and dexterous, and the simple internal palette should weather the storm of community use."