Practice rises above four fellow shortlisted teams to bag St Michael le Belfrey job

LDN Architects has won the competition to revamp a grade I-listed church in York, rising above four fellow shortlisted teams in the eyes of judges.

The practice beat Purcell, Simpson & Brown and Steyn Studio working with conservation specialist Anthony Grimshaw Associates in a  to create a 鈥渂eautiful, flexible modern space鈥 in the 16th-century St Michael le Belfrey Church next to York Minster.

Keith Williams, architectural advisor and competition jury chair, said the 鈥済reat challenge鈥 of the process had been to create a 鈥渘ew legacy鈥 for the building 鈥 a 21st-century contribution to its 500-year history that facilitated evolving patterns of worship.

 

Entrance hall of LDN Architects' competition-winning proposals for St Michael le Belfrey Church in York

Entrance hall of LDN Architects鈥 competition-winning proposals for St Michael le Belfrey Church in York

鈥淎ll of the designs responded well to the project鈥檚 complexities and challenged the competition jury at many levels,鈥 he said.

鈥淭he winning entry by LDN Architects established a refined and elegantly simple concept.

鈥淥utlining the potential for a calm series of finely crafted clearly contemporary interventions which work with and not against the architecture, light and geometry of the existing building, the designs elegantly encapsulate the new forms of worship envisaged in the brief, and as such stood to the fore.鈥

St Michael le Belfrey Church in York

Source: RIBA Competitions

St Michael le Belfrey Church in York