Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen is a Category A listed Victorian building that provides a range of facilities for church and community use.

The church members were keen to make better use of these facilities and to increase their community presence. The architect’s design proposals addressed the need to make the building more accessible, more inviting and more user friendly by reorganising and modernising the church accommodation around a new transverse circulation route joining two new entrances.

We provided M&E Engineering and our main challenge was to introduce new services into an in-use church building with minimum interference to the church users. This involved designing complicated cross-connections to the old building’s existing services, the layout of which was often unclear. With available space in the building very tight, we made use of a loft space above the café for new plant and services.

Another challenge was the conversion of the new foyer from an outdoor courtyard to an indoor space. The external space had provided natural ventilation for the existing plant spaces as well as access to the cellar, and therefore required careful thinking about how its closure would impact on its neighbouring spaces. A previously unheated large hall was made more usable though the introduction of an improved heating system and generous windows which provide plenty of natural daylight and ventilation. The high level windows in this large hall were provided with mechanical control for ease of operation. Other improvements included refurbishment of the café and nursery, both of which are now active and well-used spaces.