St Michael le Belfrey Church York Competition, Redevelopment, Architecture, Architects News

St Michael le Belfrey Church York Redevelopment

Architectural Development in north England, UK – RIBA Architectural Contest

10 Jun 2019

St Michael le Belfrey Church York Competition News

Location: High Petergate, York, northern England, UK

LDN Architects win RIBA Competition to re-order St Michael le Belfrey Church, York

10th of June 2019 – The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and St Michael le Belfrey are pleased to announce that LDN Architects have been selected as the winner of the Contemporary Reordering of St Michael le Belfrey Competition.

The Grade 1 listed church, situated in the heart of York’s historic centre adjacent to York Minster, needs to be reordered so that it is suitable for 21st Century worship, welcoming to Visitors, and supports its ‘Resource Church’ status in the Diocese. The challenging brief asked teams to consider the required repair works to the existing building, as well as exploring how the church could be adapted to suit the needs of this modern congregation.

The RIBA Competition was held over two stages and concluded with clarification interviews with each of the five shortlisted teams.

Reverend Matthew Porter, vicar at St Michael le Belfrey Church, said:
“We are delighted to be working with LDN Architects. The team was consistently ranked highly by the evaluation panel and a popular choice in our Public Exhibition, liked for their proposed layout and flexibility of approach. Their ideas supported by a well thought through design report and costings leads us to believe they will be a good fit for St Michael le Belfrey.

“It’s important to note that all the Architects’ teams demonstrated a significant investment in time and creative thought to produce ideas which they felt supported our mission and vision. The Architects contributed to an exciting and thought-provoking Public Exhibition.”

photo : Immanuel Giel [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

Keith R Williams FRIBA MRIAI FRSA, RIBA Architectural Adviser and chair of the jury said;

“St Michael le Belfrey dating from the 1520s and grade 1 listed, has been the subject of many layers of architectural intervention as patterns of worship and social structures have evolved over time.

The great challenge set out in this competition was to create the new legacy, the 21st century architectural contribution, which would facilitate evolving patterns of worship for now and for generations to come.
All of the designs responded well to the project’s complexities and challenged the competition jury at many levels.

The winning entry by LDN Architects established a refined and elegantly simple concept.
Outlining the potential for a calm series of finely crafted clearly contemporary interventions which work with and not against the architecture, light and geometry of the existing building, the designs elegantly encapsulate the new forms of worship envisaged in the brief, and as such stood to the fore.”

Mark Sidgewick, Partner at LDN Architects said: “The vision to re-order the Grade 1 listed St. Michael le Belfrey Church will result in a transformative project with the aim of inspiring and enabling 21st century worship and reinforcing the impact of the Church within the city of York and beyond.

LDN Architects are proud to be involved in this opportunity to help realise the long-held ambitions of the St. Michael le Belfrey community and to work with them to create a solution that is practical, graceful and creative and which celebrates the heritage of the city, church and faith.”

LDN Architects Edinburgh

Previously on e-architect:

23 Mar 2019

St Michael le Belfrey Church York Redevelopment News

Location: High Petergate, York, northern England, UK

Shortlist announced for contemporary reordering of St Michael le Belfrey Church in York

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is pleased to announce the five practices shortlisted to participate in the design phase of the contemporary reordering of this historic York church building.

The shortlisted architecture practices, who will now begin working on their design proposals, are:

• Dow Jones
• LDN Architects
• Purcell
• Simpson & Brown
• Steyn Studio and Anthony Grimshaw Associates

A public exhibition of the 5 shortlisted designs will be held at this York church building located at High Petergate on the 11th – 17th May 2019. An online exhibition of the proposed schemes will also be available to view at http://ribacompetitions.com/belfrey/.

Reverend Matthew Porter, vicar at this church, said:
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with these experienced and creative architect-led teams and look forward to seeing how they interpret our requirements as a contemporary, faith-filled church family, worshipping in our Grade 1 listed building. We are excited to see how they might create a beautiful, flexible, modern space which blends thoughtfully with the church’s architecture and history.”

The church is a vibrant Christian Church based in the centre of York known commonly as “The Belfrey”. They have an overall congregation of around 800 people, praising God in Christ through various styles, encouraging joyful worship and practical bible teaching. Our vision is to be serving God’s Transformation of the North. They are part of the Diocese of York and the Church of England.

The main church building is St Michael le Belfrey church (next to York Minster). St Cuthberts’ church (on Peasholme Green) is the venue for the House of Prayer. They believe that life is best lived in relationship with Jesus Christ. For further information visit www.belfrey.org or follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/thebelfrey

Location: High Petergate, York YO1 7EN, UK
Opened: 1537

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