Luther King House - Ian Brewerton Architecture

Luther King House is a theological college in South Manchester, close to the City Centre. It is the base for the training of ministers and lay people from a number of Christian churches, including Baptist, United Reformed, Methodist and Unitarian. I have been involved with works on the site since 1998. The premises originally housed the Northern Baptist College, and were built in the 1960's at a time when trainee Ministers were normally full time single students, in their early 20's, and predominantly male. The buildings were based on an Oxbridge model, though to a far lower budget !

Since then expectations have changed. Trainee ministers are now typically mature, male or female in approximately equal numbers, and most have families. Training is largely based in local churches or local communities; formal teaching is part-time in blocks of a few days week and students are not expected to be resident. Training of lay people has also become much more important. As a result of these changes, building requirements have changed drastically.

I subsequently carried out a number of feasibility studies to improve other aspects of the buildings, resulting in an appointment in 2006 to design and supervise comprehensive improvements to;