Latest

3 Days of Design, Copenhagen, June 2025 08.07.2025
GRAS joined the Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group 05.07.2025
Burr’s of Tongue awarded Silver at Scottish Design Awards 2025 27.06.2025
Jess Elliott Dennison at Lamb’s House: A Spring Cookery Workshop 24.06.2025
Kirsty Watt in Architects’ Journal 12.06.2025
Archifringe 2025: If Bricks Could Talk exhibition 06.06.2025
Material Literacy at Architextures LIVE 29.05.2025
Kinloch Lodge named winner in the 2025 RIAS Awards 23.05.2025
Scottish Design Awards 2025: three nominations for GRAS 21.05.2025
GRAS Honoured in House & Garden’s Top 100 2025 06.05.2025
View all entries
Kirk of Saint Nicholas
GRAS_Kirk of St Nicholas Marco Beghi

Originally bought by Nicholas Groves-Raines and Kristin Hannesdottir in the 1980’s the basement was a disused part of a B-listed city centre tenement block in the Tron area of Glasgow. The flats above were developed and sold but the basement lay disused for over twenty years until GRAS, the Glasgow based design branch of the company was formed in October 2006. GRAS took occupancy in the small ground floor shop and began work developing the space beneath them. For four months GRAS acted as tenants, architects, clients, project managers and often labourers, allowing them to view the project in detail from a number of different viewpoints.

 

Great efforts were made to maximise the available floor area and ceiling height while trying to retain as much of the dramatic character of the space. The unassuming shop front entry at 11 James Morrison Street leads through the reception areas, at the rear of which an industrial mesh stairwell, lit from below leads down to the lower ground level studio space where five backlit sandstone columns stand complimented by clean white walls and a slate grey floor. The floor steps down from here to a sequence of double height studio spaces centred on large brick buttresses, lit by a full height glazed door to the commonly owned garden at the rear of the building. The resulting space is unexpected by the visitor and full of hints of Glasgow’s history, from the hand made brick walls to the remnants of Glasgow’s historic street frontages now hidden far below ground level.

Location

Aberdeen, Scotland

Client

Kirk of St Nicholas Uniting

Completed

2004 –

Type

Cultural