Antioch Baptist Church

Rural Studio

The Antioch Baptist Church in northwest Perry County has a small congregation based on four families. With the existing church lacking a restroom and baptismal font, it was losing membership.

Although a romantic little structure, the existing building had major foundation problems, so a decision was made to replace it. The students charged themselves with using all of the salvageable materials from the original church. Including roof and floor joists,” wood wall paneling, tongue and groove boards, and exterior corrugated metal. Having demolished the existing church the students built a small chapel for the congregation, so they were able to continue to hold services on Sunday.

The new building that has a dramatic sloping roof, held up by hand built composite metal and wood trusses forms a retaining wall and water diverter next to the cemetery. The main view from the naïve of the church is through a horizontal window that allows the congregation to be at eye level with the graveyard.

Architecturally, the building contains two interlocking wrapping forms: one runs North-South containing the soaring South wall, the ceiling and the horizontal glass wall. The other wrap runs East-West and forms the baptistery at the West and preacher's room and restroom at the East entrance. The baptismal font is below the baptistery and accessed by a secret tiled stairway. The exterior of the building is clad in student installed “galvalum”.