St. Luke’s Anglican Church Hospitality Centre
This projects stands beside a significant heritage building—the 150-year-old Anglican church of St Luke’s in Mt Albert. The building was originally designed by P. F Martineau Burrows (1842-1920), who went on to become Chief Draftsman in the Colonial Architect’s Office. Later additions were made by prolific Auckland architect Edward Bartley (1839-1919) and by Basil Hooper (1876-1960), a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement.
Many of our projects have explicitly sought to extend Aotearoa’s rich heritage of timber architecture. When working immediately beside an important piece of that heritage, finding a form that was sympathetic to that way of building became an imperative. Our strategy was to seek a ‘family resemblance’ that indicated kinship but also acknowledged the passage of time; the new building would be the great, great grandchild of the original. To achieve this, the distinctive timber gothic form of the church was imagined as a cake, from which a carefully selected piece was sliced out. The new form is abstract and contemporary, but roof shapes, gable pitches, and the textured horizontal cladding carry forward the fundamental traits of the old building.
Removing some messy 1960s additions, the project is tucked between and around established trees and the heritage building, with special effort made to avoid disturbance to the trees or the church. Oriented around an entrance to the church, the three-storey building provides church offices and meeting rooms, hospitality spaces for church and community use, rental offices, and a large landscaped gathering space. The building has been cleverly configured to greatly improve accessibility, with facilities providing level access from a carpark to the new hospitality spaces and into the church.
The project is part of a longer term building development and landscape restoration project on the site.
RECOGNITION
CLIENT St Luke’s Anglican Church
LOCATION Mt Albert, Auckland
YEARS 2020-2024
PROJECT TEAM Andrew Barrie, Jade Shum, Melanie Pau
CONSULTANTS Planning: Barker & Associates; Structural Engineer: Batchelar McDougall Consulting; Geotechnical Engineer: Ormiston Associates; Fire Engineer: WAP Fire; Acoustic Consultant: SLR Consulting; Heritage Consultant: Plan Heritage; Arborist: Peers Brown Miller; Archaeologists: Clough & Associates; Surveyor: Arclab
CONSTRUCTION TEAM General Contractor: Neo Build
PHOTOGRAPHY