Church and community
Church Renewal: Reimagining an aged facility for a thriving church community
Something’s in the water at this church in St Lucia, where pews are full and overflowing. Years of patchwork solutions have been band-aids for their needs. At one stage a theological college, the facility now requires a substantial, thorough and intentional rethink to create a fit-for-purpose, contextually relevant and redemptively-informed place of worship and enriched community.
Project Type Church Alterations and Additions
Location St Lucia, QLD
Scope Current (Masterplan Stage)
The Beginning: Client Vision & Site Context
A spark was needed
Like most churches, building needs were met in an ad-hoc way - over time this led to a facility that was cluttered and tangled, reaching the limits of its usefulness, and was uninviting and confusing to the visitor.
Our office was initially approached to assist with locating an accessible bathroom. The response sparked deeper conversations about the building itself. It was clear that the building - redeveloped in the 70’s as a theological college, with an original timber hall that dated back to the early parts of the 20th century - was no longer fit for the church’s contemporary and future needs.
A desire to remain in the heart of community meant that a clever reconfiguration was needed.
Our Design Response
Masterplan as Return Brief
On a practical sense, the Masterplan clarifies building issues - layout, legibility, access, safety. We’ve reconfigured the interior, including relocating the secondary hall to better interface with the street and to give different congregations its own sense of identity; at the same time grouping core functions to enable future redevelopment and making wayfinding much easier for visitors. Existing building motifs, seen in the folded roof and the use of brickwork, are amplified and reinterpreted for our time.
The Masterplan process has been a valuable excercise in defining a “North Star” for the church to follow - a logical, well thought through response to current needs that makes best use of resources, while strategically allowing room for future growth to take place.
Get Started
Let’s talk about what’s possible.
Church projects often start with a coffee and chat between us and one of your core leaders. From here, we’ll begin helping to spark conversations.
Get in touch - we’d love to show you how we can equip and walk with your church in Redemptive Contextual Placemaking.