St Margaret's Church

Overcoming an almighty challenge.

Many architectural and logistical hurdles were overcome to help rebuild a damaged but much-loved spiritual landmark.

St Margaret’s Presbyterian Church is an important landmark for the local community. Liquidstone GRC won a competitive tender to supply GRC panels for the exterior street front elevation of the new church. Designed by Christchurch architects Hassan+Smith, the building’s bold architecture acts as a focal point for worship and connection.

Liquidstone worked with the architects to develop 3D models of the façade

sections, as well as the mould designs and engineering of the GRC panels. We also developed a customised fixing technique and handled the manufacture and delivery of the panels.

Each panel, support frame and fixing bracket was a unique build, and custom-made off-site to exacting tolerances. The largest panel stood over 3.5 metres tall and presented a significant logistical challenge to make the 1000km journey from Liquidstone’s Auckland workshop to Bishopsdale in Christchurch. Custom-made crates were constructed to house the panels on low-height trailers to fit under overhead bridges and the interisland ferry’s height restrictions.

This project was highly rewarding in its technical challenges from a design, manufacture, delivery and installation perspective.