| St. Joseph's Church, Burntisland |
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Left: The new look St. Joseph’s Church. St. Joseph’s Church in recent years had often been bursting at the seams and it became increasingly difficult to schedule meetings since there was so much demand for the facilities, including the hall and the presbytery and what became equally clear was the need for a bigger and better church. St. Joseph’s Church prior to the improvement works. There were actually plans to demolish and re build in 2005 but these plans had to be abandoned and the Archdiocese then commissioned architect Svein J Mjeldheim to extend and renovate the existing building. His brief was to include additional seating for up to 100 people, a new entrance foyer linking the church and the hall, the replacement of the existing asbestos roof and the general upgrading of the church which included external works. The new contemporary interior is light and airy The first floor meeting room was opened up and extended into the church itself to form a gallery. This was then supported on laminated timber beams and columns and completed with tinted glass balustrading. Exposed laminated timbers were also used to form a new foyer that can be seen both inside and out with floor to ceiling windows between the structure. Then the old roof was replaced by Kingspan insulated reversed steel decking with grey pvc membrane and raised seams giving the appearance of lead or zinc which also extended over the new central foyer. Internally the general upgrading included a re-designed altar area, sacristy and all new pass doors in ash finish, new central heating, new lighting fitments throughout and redecoration in light natural colours. The overall impact of the church, together with the glass balustrading and stainless steel ironmongery is one of a clean, crisp and contemporary look. On the insistence of the architect a bell tower was added to what had been a drab south facing gable wall and along with the glass blocks completed the transformation of the church. The whole project came in on time within the building cost budget of £250,000. The parish priest Fr Paul Capaldi, said that the whole congregation were “thrilled” with their new church building, which he described as being the original four walls with a new church built inside them. The church was finally ready earlier this year and on the feast of St. Joseph Cardinal O’Brien officially opened the new building. With thanks to Church Building Magazine http://www.churchbuilding.co.uk/ for this adaptation of their article on St. Joseph’s Church, Burntisland, April 2009 and to Svein J Mjeldheim Architect. PROJECT TEAM - Client: Archdiocese of St.Andrews and Edinburgh |
Prior to recent improvement works, St. Joseph’s Church itself was clearly not an architectural gem with its box-like structure and asbestos roof. 
