St John’s Anglican Church Cranbourne

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 whilst 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.