Past meets present and future in this resuscitation and expansion of historic church buildings in one of Australia’s most popular growth corridors. The original buildings were an 1864 church and a 100-year-old parish hall. The brief was to preserve their integrity while building a new church for the burgeoning population, as well as a complex of multi-functional spaces for community outreach.
The finished complex comprises a new church building for almost 300 people and an education centre with two meeting rooms, a large kitchen, a foyer/meeting space, toilet facilities, reception and office spaces. An outdoor barbeque with shade sails over a timber deck provides for informal social gatherings. A new, freestanding steel canopy structure has been incorporated into the design to create a visual, metaphoric and pragmatic bridge between the two historic buildings and the new church building.
