RIAS Quarterly

Excerpt of published article written by project architect Adam Williams and Kieran Gaffney for the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland magazine Quarterly: winter 2024 edition.

A Centre for Community

Declining congregation numbers are leaving lots of church buildings empty. Built and conceived as the heart of their communities, both in location and as a symbolic focus, the loss of churches as a community gathering place is a significant loss to our towns and places. But, what else can we as a culture use them for?

Redevelopment as private housing, although the norm, means a significant loss [AQ1] to the community and demolition crosses an environmental red line. Examples such as the König Gallery in Berlin by Arno Brandhuber, The Garden Museum in London by Dow Jones or even the Omnipollo’s brewery in Stockholm show that these types of buildings double as opportunities to be seized.

The Greyfriars Kirk encountered this question in 2015, when the Charteris Memorial Church became redundant. Rather than take up the University’s offer to demolish and build student flats, the congregation decided to repurpose the church so that it could continue to play a role as a ‘centre for the community’.

Working closely with the client group, Konishi Gaffney won an invited competition and led a multi-disciplinary team on the £1.7m refurbishment, improvement and extension to provide a flexible workspace, a community hub, events spaces and a non-denominational sanctuary.

The eponymous centre would be named after the Very Rev. Professor Archibald Charteris, a Victorian minister, philosopher and social reformer, who was known for advocating for women within the church. The building seeks to provide a warm welcome and serve people of ‘all cultures, faiths and self-expressions’. It is a place for connection and wellbeing, providing a base and support for social enterprises, charities, local groups and activities centred around equality, diversity, mental and physical health, faith, culture and the arts, education and more.

The challenge in adapting church buildings is meeting modern standards of accessibility, fire safety and environmental performance. The Charteris Centre, as a result of incremental additions, had no clear front door with six different entrances and an inside which was closed off and invisible from the street; not matching the centre’s vision as a welcoming space for all. The building was also practically inaccessible for people with mobility needs – narrow and steep stairs across multiple changes of level offered an ethical and operational challenge. The building suffered from dated services and very poor insulation levels, which resulted in it being cold and hard to heat.

To tackle these problems the design started with one simple move to rationalise the front of the building: dropping the ground floor level by 800mm allowed us to form a unified and accessible entrance lobby. This enabled the formation of a new, wide, tiered staircase and seating block to be formed, serving access to the basement hall and presenting views from the street down to the co-working space below.

The lower hall is inhabited by Edinburgh Social Enterprise Network who use the space to support and encourage via hot-desking startups. This semi-public space works as it offers a visual connection and a welcome to the community groups, sports clubs and conference attendees who use the hall above.

The only new-build element of the project was a ‘link’ building, carefully slotted into the narrow space between the two existing buildings to form a triple height reception area with a lift from basement to 3rd floor. The new link building provides a main front door and a civic street presence. Internally, all parts of the building are visually opened up to the entrance, welcoming the visitor in and allowing them to get their bearings before moving on through the building.

The existing lancet windows were cut down to eye level offering views through the building so that passers-by can see the range of activity inside.

Collaboration

Konishi Gaffney recognises the value that collaboration brings to projects. There is a richness that is achieved through multiple voices and specialisms.

Working closely with local specialists Old School Fabrications from an early stage they developed simple but effective details for the main staircase with a material palette of maple with walnut nosings and birch faced plywood handrails. This was all finished with a whitewash to enhance its light appearance. Details worked out with their expertise informed the detailing and furniture elements of other parts of the building by the main contractor.

The link building was clad externally in white terrazzo panels with a sculptural relief pattern. These decorative panels were a collaboration with artists Steven and Ffion of Chalk Plaster; a modern interpretation of the rusticated bases of Edinburgh’s Georgian houses. The terrazzo panels are broken up at higher levels with a series of slender Accoya fins that give rhythm and order to the elevation – a tricky design challenge at just 4.8 wide and 12m tall where 60% of the width was taken up by the lift.

Francis Milloy, an architect and lighting designer trained at Strathclyde and East London led the lighting design from his New York base. Allowing the building to glow at night was a subtle but effective response that has won several lighting design awards.

What to do about energy? Churches are typically large, high-volume spaces which are difficult and carbon intensive to heat. Insulating can be arduous with significant technical and heritage risks while also being very expensive. At Charteris it was obvious that a full Enerphit standard retrofit was unaffordable and thus, with its huge wall areas, it was decided that concentration would fall on three main areas: loft insulation, floor (as there were damp issues anyway) and windows. Changing the windows meant removing the unloved, non-decorative, leaded glass and replacing with double glazed timber windows including replacing the nearly 6m tall, west facing, nave window that floods the main hall with evening light through a delicate maple screen.

A new efficient, heating system was specified and supplemented by a large 24kW array of Solar panels on the church’s south facing roof.

The original brief included a quote from the Rev. Charteris against which the design was often benchmarked: “It is they who dream bright dreams that in the end deliver. Do not be afraid or ashamed to announce splendid hopes. It is enthusiasts the world needs and I pray you to be enthusiastic!”

The client group were excellent throughout; despite the ubiquitous cost pressures and delays across the pandemic they didn’t lose focus or enthusiasm for their community and design ambitions.

“As well as practical solutions to the design, the interior detailing has been handled exquisitely by Konishi Gaffney.  The new elements of glass and wood, sit sympathetically with the original building, delicately layered over the original features allowing a contemporary aesthetic without covering up the past.”

Client
Architect
Architects
Joinery
Sculptural Collaboration
Lighting
Structural Engineer
M&E
QS
Main Contractor
Glazing
Cladding
Windows & Doors

Greyfriars Charteris Centre
Konishi Gaffney
Kieran Gaffney, Adam Williams, Ivan Fraile-Gisbert, Dana Cherepkova, Dee Farrell
Old School Fabrications
Chalk Plaster
Francis Milloy
Entuitive / Forshaw Gauld
Irons Foulner Consulting Engineers
Thomson Gray
SJS Property Services
Gray & Dick
Cambridge Architectural Precast
Hall & Tawse