Furniture in Architecture: the Luke Hughes blog

Sheffield Cathedral | Blog

Written by Seb Egan | 27 July 2020

In 2,000 years of evolution of ecclesiastical architecture, no one thought about stacking pews until the team at Luke Hughes invented them as the next generation of cathedral furniture in 1995.

Not only did this cut the unit cost per seat, it also increased capacity because a family of five can shuffle-up to sit on a four-seater bench. This potential for a 20% increase in capacity with no additional floor area and new and improved flexibility has been a central theme of the company’s church reordering projects ever since and is now a common theme in our design of cathedral furniture.

It is also true to say that of all the churches and cathedrals in which Luke Hughes furniture is installed, Sheffield is probably the busiest in terms of reconfiguration. Only some of our synagogue clients re-purpose their space as often in a single day.

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