Construction starts on UK's largest Christian monument

Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer by Snug Architects

Work has begun on a looped Christian landmark named the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, which was designed by UK studio Snug Architects to rise over 50 metres in Warwickshire.

Snug Architects designed the sculptural, ribbon-like structure as a Möbius strip – a continuous concrete band that curves and twists in a loop.

The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer will top out at 51.5 metres tall and be 80 metres wide, which will make it the largest piece of Christian art in the UK when it completes in 2028.

Footpaths and landscaped areas will surround the wall, and elsewhere on the site will be a visitor centre and a 24/7 prayer room.

Set to be built near Coleshill, the monument will be made up of 188 differently shaped precast concrete elements clad in one million white bricks.

Each brick on the looping wall will represent the story of an answered prayer, which visitors will be able to read via a mobile app.

Render of the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer by Snug Architects — The curving structure will be clad in one million bricks

The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer was designed to inspire hope and prayer among visitors and those passing by on the adjacent M6 and M42 motorways.

Snug Architects director Paul Bulkeley said the idea for the Möbius strip design came to him while he was praying.

"I am a Christian, and when faced with a significant work challenge, it is my normal practice to pray and ask Jesus for inspiration," he told Dezeen.

"On this occasion, I pondered the brief, 'one million bricks is 15,000 square metres, which creates a 7.5 kilometre garden wall' – that is totally uninspiring and inaccessible," he continued. "I prayed, and the Möbius strip popped into my head."

"A simple wall was transformed into a highly dynamic, gently enclosing yet open and inviting courtyard that twisted through the air."

Render of a Christian monument in the UK by Snug Archtects — The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer will be over 50 metres tall

Snug Architects was commissioned to design the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer in 2016, when it won a global competition held by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Construction has now commenced, after the £40 million fundraising target was met.

Bulkeley said the brief for the structure specified that it should not feature obvious Christian symbolism, which the Möbius strip achieved.

Render of a Christian monument in the UK by Snug Architects — Footpaths and gardens will surround the structure

"On deeper reflection, this was clearly a beautiful and poetic solution that has proved to be rich with poetic significance and symbolism whilst meeting the brief of being free from explicit Christian symbolism," said Bulkeley.

"It was beautifully simple and therefore had the potential to be iconic – I knew we had something special."

Other Christian buildings that have recently been featured on Dezeen include a tiny, aluminium-clad chapel in New Zealand and a video of the construction of the tower of Jesus Christ at the Sagrada Familia.

The images are by Snug Architects.

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