Iona Village Hall

Isle of Iona

Iona Village Hall is the result of a decade of hard work by the people of Iona to realise a building that will keep a village hall at the heart of community life on the island. WT Architecture and the design team have worked alongside the community since 2012 to deliver a building that can fulfil the functions of gathering space, learning facilities, school PE space, ceilidh hall, theatre, playgroup, music venue and wedding venue amongst others.

The new Village Hall replaces a much-loved but deteriorating single space Hall built by islanders in 1928. The Hall now provides a flexible layout including a main hall space two meeting rooms, a kitchen, bar area and ‘gathering space’ intended to be used as the islands communal living room. In winter there are no other public spaces for the community to come together in so it was important that the Hall offer opportunities for both formal and informal social space and feel welcoming to those dropping in for contact, support and community on an island where social isolation, particularly for the elderly and young parents can be acute.

Materials have been carefully selected to complement the surrounding historic context with blue zinc roofs echoing the slate of nearby buildings and larch clad and rendered block walls reflecting the timber and masonry buildings of the village. A series of stone walls to the terraces and south-west elevation of the building helps to root the Hall into the sloping ground. Constructed in pink granite donated from Tormore quarry at Fionnphort and slate donated by the community on Luing, the stone walls provide the building with not only a sense of belonging in the landscape but serve as a testament to community collaboration and endeavour, utilising local materials, skilled local labour and made possible by the generosity of fellow islanders.

Internally the Hall is configured as a series of flexible spaces capable of holding numerous different activities within the building at the one time, or opening up to form a fluid and overlapping arrangement of rooms. All spaces in the building were designed for a feeling of connection to the surrounding landscape and life of the village, making the most of the light and views and fostering a sense of belonging for the building within the wider constellation of civic buildings that form the western edge of the village.