The first anchorage for the church barge was the Li River / Canal at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park: it will stay here for three to five years, and then move further along the rivers and canals. Its service life is 25 years. Genesis Church was created for the St Columbus-East London community in Stepney County within the metropolitan bishopric.
In addition to its religious function, Genesis, named after the first book of the Bible, also serves as a community center - like most ordinary churches. It is planned to conduct developmental classes for parents with kids, art lessons, interfaith holidays, concerts, meetings of various support groups and even Pilates classes there. In addition, those who wish can rent a barge for their event, and local schools will also use it: this will allow the church to become self-supporting.
The barge, created in collaboration with the shipbuilding engineers of Tucker Designs, is very compact, allowing it to pass under any bridge. But at the push of a button, its roof opens: this canvas "accordion" is inspired by organ furs. The LEDs illuminating it immediately draw attention to the barge, which is important in the context of its preaching role, because it is even compared to a mission.
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zooming 1/4 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
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zooming 2/4 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
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zooming 3/4 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
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zooming 4/4 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
The entrance is located in the middle of the side of the barge: at the stern there are grouped the kitchen, the administrative room and the bathroom, on the other side - the main space with the described transformable roof. It is surrounded by benches with storage boxes made of MDF around the perimeter, depending on the needs of a particular day, stools or folding tables are placed there, made to order according to the design of the Plyco studio. The altar is also foldable, reminiscent of the bow of a ship: its authors are Denizen Works themselves. The room can accommodate 40 people sitting or 60 standing.
The characteristic “sail” seam, which was used for the accordion roof, decorated it in the form of painting, and in the interior it appeared on the openwork aluminum screens covering the windows, tiles in the kitchen, and the shape of furniture legs.
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Image 
zooming 1/3 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
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zooming 2/3 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
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zooming 3/3 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
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zooming 1/5 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
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zooming 2/5 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
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zooming 3/5 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
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zooming 4/5 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
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zooming 5/5 Genesis Floating Church Photo © Gilbert McCarragher
