“We are pleased that the Inspectorate has granted planning permission on appeal for this important project. We have been working on it since we won a competition in 2021. The Ismaili Trust have an impressive commitment to high quality architecture and landscape design. We look forward to continuing our work with the Trust to create a special place at the heart of the community for many years to come.” – Níall McLaughlin.
Architecture critic Rowan Moore has written a review of the Bishop Edward King Chapel with the title “The Answers to their Prayers” that was published in the Observer Magazine. The article touches on the broader themes of the interpretation and appropriation of religious symbolism in architecture, and in this context praises the paradoxical nature of the chapel; “It is…heavy and light, a bastion and a boat, a wall and a drape. It has presence, but doesn’t dominate.” Describing the form and materiality of the building Moore writes, “The building is crafted and considered: it makes ideas physical: it has intentions and carries them out in its space and matter.”