Designed in bed - Liam McCormick
Taken from North by Northwest - Paul Larmour & Shane O'Toole

I was born, to be precise, at 07.22 on 24th October in 1916. Since that date I have spent an above-average time in bed. The idea for my first church was conceived and weaned there, where the creative imagination evolved. As with me, that church's early stages towards maturity were halting and difficult. However, I am 70 and it almost 40; both wear surprisingly well, the church a little better than I.

Over the many years since I first discovered that the imaginative and romantic stimulus to one's architectural creativity can be achieved within the confines of bed, I retire there. After the initial site research, after the battles over money, I retire there. Not always voluntarily - more often than not, at the dictate of the medical mystics.

Bed is now living in hospital in an astonishing space: six feet, six inches by three feet, of adjustable height and proven discomfort, tethered to a drip. The limitations heighten isolation from the mundane, day-to-day world. Fantasy, imagination, daydreaming can be indulged in without feeling guilt at not being busy or gainfully employed.

The doctors, nurses and bed-pushers do their best. But the whole of the future, be it life or death, full or partial recovery, is determined by the great architect, the Creator. It is natural that fantasy, imagination and escaping from the six-foot-six-by-three should find its outlet in designing a church, which should not only lift my spirit at this time but, if ever built, inspire others.

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