SRH A was invited to compete in a Design Excellence Competition by our Client and the City of Parramatta Council. We were announced as the winners unanimously by the Jury and have been engaged as the Project Architect for the delivery of this prominent commercial and co-living development in the heart of the Parramatta CBD.
The development comprises a multi-use building comprising of The Uniting Church in Australia’s Congregational and Mission operations, commercial offices and co-living dwellings. With great history comes a great responsibility to the Uniting Church in Australia therefore our strategy is to create a landmark building that is specific to a campus of three sites - a building that grows out of the rich and detailed history of the site and one that incorporates and is cognisant of the close inter-relationship with the existing Leigh Memorial Church.
We have sought to understand the urban and immediate context to enable a considered and site specific response to the site and proposed campus. In its form, massing and material, our design is uniquely of its time and place, a natural extension of both the church and neighbouring built context that will endure and contribute to the city.
The built form will be a timeless and elegant statement consisting of two parts; a robust streetscape and public domain treatment permeating through and around the existing church curtilage, complemented by a series of stepped ‘steeples’ reminiscent of the delicate stained glass windows and craftmanship of the neighbouring church windows, carrying history forward, embedding it contemporaneously.
Our aim is to create a genuine extension of the public domain to provide a warm welcome to all those in need.
