© Tim Crocker
- Architects: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
- Location: West Yorkshire, UK
- Project Year: 2015
- Photographs: Tim Crocker, Tom Lonsdale, Peter Cook
- Client: Conventus of our lady of Consolation, Stanbrook Abbey
- Main Contractor: William Birch Construction – Phase 1 QSP Construction – Phase 2
- Cost Consultant: Davis Langdon – Phase 1, Richard Cavadino – Phase 2
- Structural Engineer: Structures One – Phase 1, Buro Happold – Phase 2
- M&E Engineer: AECOM – Phase 1 , Energy Unique – Phase 2
- Project Manager: Davis Langdon LLP – Phase 1, Richard Cavadino – Phase 2
- Construction Value: £7,500,000
© Tim Crocker
From the architect. Stanbrook Abbey is a new home for the Conventus of Our Lady of Consolation, a Benedictine community of nuns who devote their lives to study, work and prayer. Relocating from their old Victorian home in Worcestershire, the nuns’ contemplative way of life required spaces that were simple, tranquil and beautiful, or as they put it in their monastic vision brief – a place where they could ‘pray always’.
© Tim Crocker
© Tim Crocker
Located in the North York Moors National Park the new site was chosen by the nuns for its “special quality of silence and light” providing them with a peaceful setting for their contemplative life and far-reaching views over the Vale of York.
Floor Plan
The project was completed over two phases. Phase I, completed in 2009, included 26 new private cells for the nuns along the southern edge of the site, shared kitchen and dining facilities and work rooms. Phase II, completed in 2015, involved the construction of the new Community Church and Chapel, the Chapter House and guest spaces.
© Tom Lonsdale
Floor Plan – Church and Chapel
© Tim Crocker
Using a delicate palette of materials and innovative structural solutions we have created a set of spaces that are both inspiring in their visual connections to the surrounding landscape, and simple in their practical details.
© Peter Cook
© Peter Cook
Taking full advantage of natural light and views, the monastery relates closely to the surrounding undulating landscape. The Nuns’ brief also requested a modern monastery which was economic to run and ecologically sensitive in design.
© Tom Lonsdale
Sig Nordal 