Page 34 - Studio International - June 1967

The Liverpool lantern

One of the joint designers describes the problems he and Patrick Reyntiens faced and
the solutions they adopted.

John Piper

The lantern of the new Roman Catholic cathedral of fired, leaded and formed into panels that are, finally,
Christ the King at Liverpool is a near cylinder that tapers fixed between metal glazing bars. The dalle de verre tech-
upwards slightly, and is set high above the circular body nique has been used in France and Germany since before
of Frederick Gibberd's building. The coloured glass in it the last war, and is now increasingly used in Britain and
is inch-thick dalle de verre (dalle is French for a 'sett', or America. The lantern at Liverpool has sixteen segments,
pavement light) bonded in concrete and epoxy resin, each about fourteen feet wide by sixty high. The whole
and is thus a building material, each section of which lantern is some 200 feet from the floor.
supports the weight of the section above it, the topmost The problem that faced Patrick Reyntiens and myself
sections supporting the roof. In this it is unlike traditional as joint designers, when Frederick Gibberd asked us to
stained glass, which since early medieval times has been do the glass, was this : we had to produce an effect of
cut from purpose-made sheets of coloured glass, painted, light and colour simple enough in character and bold