The biggest church building in Central and Eastern Africa Pastor David Adeoye. By WANGECI KANYEKI
The
Winners Chapel Sanctuary on the New Likoni Road in Nairobi’s South B,
is a gigantic landmark. Similar to the typical traditional communal
gathering in African setting of a fireplace in the homestead, the church
is built in the shape of a hexagon, giving the congregants a clear view
of the pulpit at the centre of the building.
As the church grew
to about 10,000 members, their sanctuary at Adams Arcade on Ngong’ Road
became too small to accommodate the swelling numbers. That is when they
bought the land on which the new sanctuary is standing.
According
to senior pastor David Adeoye, the 15-acre land was purchased in the
year 2000, and application sought for change of user from light industry
to church.
The Winners Chapel architectural plan is
adapted from a master plan from parent church, Faith Tabernacle, a
50,000-seater church in Lagos Nigeria. According to the former
chairperson of the church building committee, Samuel Kimani, a
contractor by profession, the architect for the master plan was
Nigerian, Pastor Azubike Nwoke who has been endorsed locally.
The
structural engineer was Iyk Ikechuku, who was also endorsed by local
engineers. The construction started in 2005. The technical team leader
Simon Njuguna says the six-sided sanctuary has a floor space of more
than 17,000 square metres and sits on 2.5 acres. The strong corners act
as anchorage points to support the roof, which approximately weighs 350
tonnes.
The shear walls at the six corners take up the horizontal
loading of the roof trusses, creating a clear span of 100 metres
without any obstruction of pillars in the sanctuary. Njuguna says this
is the largest clear span in East and Central Africa.
The church
has a sitting capacity of 12,000 but it can accommodate more people
depending on seating arrangements. Thanks to engineering ingenuity, a
balcony extends inward into the sanctuary as a cantilever of 5.42 metres
to safely carry a load of 4,000 people.
Sink borehole
The
six corners of the roof have concealed storage tanks of 40,000 litres
each. Plans are underway to sink a borehole to provide efficient supply
of clean water. An underground water tank will also be constructed to
harvest rainwater with a capacity of 400,000 litres.
Kenya Power
supplies electricity, but there is also a back up generator. Plans are
in place to install solar and wind alternatives to save on energy. A
toilet block or what they call the executive chamber of release is a
one-storey building that sits on half-acre land and houses 66 toilets
for the ladies and 25 for the gents and urinals enough for 45 men at one
go.
The black cotton soil on the land proved a
challenge to build on, so columns were sank to the rock to support the
building. This created a space above the foundation, which could either
be backfilled with approved soil or hard-core, which would have been
expensive and the space unusable.
There was a structural
redesigning and a basement was created facilitating multiple utility
rooms for conference rooms and Sunday school classes. There are also
tunnels, which the pastors use to access the sanctuary.
The
basement is well lit. The doors bring in enough light and air into the
basement and the opaque glass blocks on the slabs also aid in filtering
more light.
The church has six entrances with seven double doors
at each entrance. This eases the in-flow and out-flow of the
congregants. The concrete paved driveway and parking has a capacity of
700 cars and is designed to minimise the conflict between pedestrians
and incoming or outgoing vehicles. It will be extended to accommodate
more vehicles. The project, which would have taken two years to build if
fully funded, took eight years as the church raised funds without
assistance from international donors. It was officially opened in April.
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