page_title: Church architecture in Scotland
section_title: Modernism and Post-Modernism
hierarchical_section_title: Church architecture in Scotland / Twentieth century / Modernism and Post-Modernism
caption_attribution_description: English: Mortonhall Crematorium
context_page_description: Church architecture in Scotland incorporates all church building within the modern borders of Scotland, from the earliest Christian structures in the sixth century until the present day. The early Christian churches for which there is evidence are basic masonry-built constructions on the west coast and islands. As Christianity spread, local churches tended to remain much simpler than their English counterparts. By the eighth century more sophisticated ashlar block-built buildings began to be constructed. From the eleventh century, there were larger and more ornate Romanesque buildings, as with Dunfermline Abbey and St Magnus Cathedral in Orkney. From the twelfth century the introduction of new monastic orders led to a boom in ecclesiastical building, often using English and Continental forms. From the thirteenth century elements of the European Gothic style began to appear in Scotland, culminating in buildings such as Glasgow Cathedral and the rebuilt Melrose Abbey. Renaissance influences can be seen in a move to a low-massive style that was probably influenced by contacts with Italy and the Netherlands.
context_section_description: After the Second World War, there was another period of rapid church building, as the creation of new towns and council house estates necessitated the rapid supply of new churches. The austerity, shortage of materials and need for rapid building, discouraged the development of innovative design. This was accompanied by the rejection by most architects of traditional forms in favour of  "international modernism", characterised by simple outlines, uncluttered internal spaces, absence of colour, and flat roofs.
  The Catholic Church, whose traditional membership was most affected by the changes in housing, was the first to react to this situation, creating 76 new parishes between 1845 and 1960 in the west of the country alone. The Baptist and Episcopalian churches followed close behind, particularly in the new towns. Within the Church of Scotland, the closeness of congregation and clergy was expressed in the domestic plainness of 1950s dual-use hall churches, as at Reiach's Kildrum Parish Church, Cumbernauld (completed 1962), a steel framed building, clad in timber and brick with a flat roof. Of 129 buildings erected by the Church of Scotland between 1948 and 1959, 108 were on this basic pattern.
  The influence of more radical Expressionism and Modernism can be seen in buildings such as Basil Spence's Mortonhall Crematorium, Edinburgh (1964–67), with a series of irregular chapels, with smooth-faced blockwork and Wheeler & Sproson's Boghall Church, Bathgate (1965), influenced by Beaux-Arts architecture. The pioneering contribution from the Church of Scotland was St. Columbia's, Glenrothes (1960), which had seating for the congregation on three sides of a central platform, with the choir and elders on the fourth side behind the pulpit.
  In the Roman Catholic Church, the most important steps towards an expressionist design were under taken by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia. This began with St Paul's Church in the new town of Glenrothes (1956–57). This was a wedge-shaped construction of white-painted common brick focused on a dramatic, jagged metal cross by the sculptor Benno Schotz. From about 1960, all Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's churches were designed in this Late Modernist style, as at St Bride's, East Kilbride (1963–64), which had a rectangular plan. From the mid-1960s, they adopted a centralised, non-rectangular plan, with seating ranged round the altar, reflecting liturgical change. Sacred Heart Church, Cumbernauld (1964), was rectangular, of load-bearing brick, dramatically lit through dark coloured windows. Our Lady of Good Counsel, Dennistoun (1965) had a splayed plan and slanted ceiling. St Benedict Drumchapel (1965–67) had a prow-like roof on curved, laminated timbers. These innovative designs inspired others to experiment, including J. McCarron's Our Lady of Sorrows, South Uist (1964–65). However, many of these designs proved too radical and were later demolished by the Catholic Church, citing structural or maintenance problems.
  The end of this phase of church-building, as the production of new housing subsided in the 1970s, saw a return to conservatism in church design, which may have reflected a loss of confidence in the churches as attendances rapidly declined. M. Glendinning, R. MacInnes and A. MacKechnie have identified a "post-Coia" style emerging in this period. The limited building, some replacing existing churches, tended to be by building companies using laminated timber beams, exposed brickwork and pyramidal roofs to produce utilitarian, if aesthetically unadventurous, constructions. From the late 1980s there were some original designs, including St Mary the Virgin, in Port Glasgow (1984) by Frank Burnet, Bell and Partners; St Anthony's Catholic church in Kirriemuir (1987), by James F. Stephen Architects; and the replacement church at St Joseph's Catholic Church, Faifley (1997) by Jacobsen and French. There was also the postmodern design of St John Ogilvie Catholic Church, Irvine (1982), and the nearby Girdle Toll parish church, converted from a farmhouse (1992).
caption: Mortonhall, Edinburgh, designed by Basil Spence
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