St Andrew’s Church Community Hall

St Andrew’s Church Community Hall provides a new multi-purpose and flexible community space that will be an asset to the Church and to the wider community of Barrhead.

Date

2020

Client

St Andrew’s Church

Value

£625k

In early 2016, jmarchitects were invited along with our design team, to undertake a feasibility study for a community hall extension to the existing St Andrew’s Church in Barrhead.

St Andrew’s Church was built in 1967 to replace the original 1796 church. The modernist design incorporates a high roof, long aisle and decorative stained-glass windows by Gordon Webster. The church has since been extended to provide ancillary accommodation along the north elevation.

In 2013, the parishes of ‘Arthurlie’ and ‘South and Levern’ amalgamated. Now operating out of two locations, the ambition was to build a new Community Hall at St Andrew’s Church to consolidate their existing facilities within one site, bringing the existing user groups together in one location. Existing groups include the Brownies, Boys Brigade, Scouts, Kick Club and Keep Fit. The church’s ambition is that the new facilities will form an asset for the wider community in Barrhead.

The building provides approximately 188m² of new accommodation. This comprises of a dedicated entrance foyer that provides barrier free access to the new community hall while also providing potential for additional break-out space for user groups using the adjacent hall accommodation.

A large hall providing 110sqm of clear space created to meet the needs of the Church and user groups. This hall can be sub-divided to provide two separate smaller halls. The halls are laid out end-to-end separated by a full height moveable wall that the main hall to be split into two defined spaces of different sizes to accommodate varying user group requirements. When sub-divided both halls retain independent access from the main entrance foyer. The larger sub-divided hall also has access to the rear garden space and to the satellite kitchen servery. Storage has been provided by the incorporation of a shallow perimeter storage wall.

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The Challenge

Following the amalgamation of the ‘Arthurlie’ and ‘South and Levern’ parishes the new combined congregation resulted in their community groups being split across two separate locations in existing buildings that were not designed for the user group needs and would have ongoing maintenance commitments and costs.

The Solution

jmarchitects designed an independent community hall annex to the existing St Andrew’s Church that would provide a large multi-purpose space that could be sub-divided into two spaces providing flexible accommodation for the use of the Church and their community groups.

The Outcome

The Church has been provided with a new dedicated community facility that has allowed them to consolidate all their activities in one location and provide quality accommodation to meet the needs of their respective user groups while also providing a more public face for engagement with the wider community.