The Sunday School Room Cabin at St John the Evangelist Church

We have just completed a building for St John the Evangelist Church in Littlewick Green, Berkshire which is going to be used as a Sunday school room. We have provided many kinds of these types of buildings in the past to schools but not one for a church so it was quite a unique and welcome brief for us.

The reason for the building’s requirement in the first place is that there is nowhere within the current church where families and children can congregate on a Sunday and where the local church community can also convene.

The church wanted a building which was sympathetic to the local environment, was not a me too “box” and was capable of being self-sufficient. We therefore designed a 7m x 4m building which was to be clad externally in cedar in order to give it that extra “cabin” look and feel with a hipped cedar shingle tile roof.

The building was also to feature a lot of glass to allow in extra natural daylight. Internally, we allowed for a timber vaulted ceiling (rather than have a suspended roof which would have boxed in the cabin) and the internal walls featured a white painted, profile grooved boarding. As the cabin had to be independent from the church, we also allowed for a WC (which is actually off grid) and a kitchenette facility to make hot drinks and to act as a food preparation area. The building is also fully insulated to the floor, roof and walls.

Part of the stipulations of the planning permission was that we had to protect the roots of the nearby surrounding trees so our standard foundations were not in play in this instance. We therefore used a non-intrusive plinth foundation system which is only dug into the ground by a maximum of 300mm thereby not disturbing any of the roots. 12 of these were used under the building.

After gaining all of the necessary consents from the planning authorities and the Church, we started the work fairly quickly once it had been green lighted. The whole build job was completed within 10 days including all of the electrics and plumbing which were undertaken by local contractors. The Church are already using it and are delighted with the building.

These buildings are modular so we can build them to different shapes and sizes and we offer a whole host of options – roof and external timber claddings, hipped, pent and traditional pitched roofs, different levels of insulation, foundation systems including ground screws and plinths, renewable energy systems and assistance with planning if so required.

For further information on our range of enclosed buildings, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01832 275902 or email: info@hideouthouse.com