Sacred Heart Cathedral of Kericho
Completed at the end of 2015, Kericho Cathedral is located in Kenya, approximately 250km South-West ?of Nairobi. It lies within the Highlands, west of the Great Rift Valley, enjoying magnificent views across tea plantations and surrounding hills. The Diocese was established in 1995 with a growing congregation and is led by the Most Reverend Bishop Emmanuel Okombo.The Cathedral?s design creates a unique and sacred place for a congregation of 1,500 seated celebrants participating in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Mass under one giant unifying roof. The strikingly inclined roof and its ascending interior volume – over 1,375 square meters in size – are the key characteristics of its design.
Bishop Emmanuel was particularly concerned to widen the nave as it approaches the altar to maximize the congregation?s engagement with the celebration of the Mass and its climax, the Act of Communion. It opens completely along both transepts to promote natural ventilation and allow the congregation to leave the building at multiple points and expand onto the landscaped terraces and gardens.The aspiration was to create a structure that integrated seamlessly with its landscape setting, in both aesthetic and functional terms. The Cathedral?s tiled-roof is now a distinctive form in the rolling panorama of Kericho?s hills and valleys. The architectural challenge has been to ensure Kericho Cathedral embodied the Catholic liturgy and embraced its loc...