Martyrs Kirk Reading Room in University of St Andrews

Page \ Park Architects was commissioned by the University of St Andrews to convert the newly acquired Martyrs Kirk into a post-graduate reading room for the Faculty of Arts. The original church by Gillespie and Scott, completed in 1928, sits in the post first world war national tradition, its horizontal emphasis of volume being characteristic of the period. Furniture and fittings were carefully selected to reconfigure and redefine the space, bringing down the scale to create a feeling of intimacy and academia whilst retaining the ecclesiastical nature of the architecture. Crafted bookcases, located between the arches, replace the original pews, their illuminated ends referencing ecclesiastical stained glass. A central reading spine, aligned with the original aisle, is comprised of a series of writing tables, each one individually lit by an Anglepoise® Type 75™ desk lamp.