Church of St Benedict, Drumchapel (Gillespie, Kidd and Coia)
- Reference:GB 1694 GKC/CH-DU
- Dates of Creation:1955-1975
- Name of Creator:
Scope and Content
Job files, images and drawings related to project.
Administrative / Biographical History
The opening of St Benedict's Church completed a development which started with the erection of a church hall designed to serve as a temporary church; followed by the completion & occupation of the presbytery. The grouping & designing of the individual buildings were strongly influenced by their situation on a narrow & difficult site in undistinguished surroundings and the form of the buildings was intended to produce a vigorous & recognisable group dominated by the church & making best use of the difficult site levels & shape while minimising the impact of the surrounding developments.
The church for approximately 600 persons, was planned to establish close contact between the congregants & the altar and was therefore arranged with a centrally placed open sanctuary surrounded by the seating. Within a diagonally disposed near-square plan were three connected & related spaces. The largest formed the nave, with the sanctuary occupying the central highest & best lighted space; a lady chapel continuous with the nave & served as a weekday chapel, & thirdly an enclosable pen with by giving access for private devotion at all times allowed the church greater security for potential vandalism & misuse. The usual ancillaries consisting of four sets of confessionals, narthex, working & priest sacristies completed the accommodation. The placing of these sacristies in the lower ground floor of the house combined the exploitation of the site levels with additional compactness, similarly the use of the narthex as a link between the hall & the church allowed continuous indoor circulation to all parts of the complex.
The church's character was achieved by the disciplined use of a small range of self-finished materials & the architectural control of natural & artificial light.
Arrangement
The material has been arranged using original Gillespie Kidd and Coia project reference codes.
Access Information
Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections are open for research by appointment.
Note
Catalogued by Tracy Wilkinson, GKC Project Archivist
Conditions Governing Use
Application for permission to quote should be sent to the Glasgow School of Art Archivist.
Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use and condition of documents.
Appraisal Information
This material has been appraised in line with Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections standard procedures.
Subjects
Corporate Names
Geographical Names