St Mary’s Kinglake Church / Kavellaris Urban Design

Architects: Kavellaris Urban Design
Location: St Marry, Australia
Project year: 2010
Photographs: Courtesy of Kavellaris Urban Design

During the ‘Black Saturday’ Victorian bush fires KUD broadcasted an invitation to donate services for the reconstruction of the fire effected Anglican and Catholic Churches via ABC radio. The St Mary’s Kinglake Church responded to our invitation and we are pleased to announce that the church was completed in December 2010.

The building is essentially three interlocking volumes that metaphorically symbolise the holy trinity which are strategically arranged to capture the views of the beautiful surrounding landscape. The main chapel is orientated in an east west direction with a southern wall of glass that incorporates the Kinglake valleys as a backdrop to the interior space. A bank of highlight windows to the east filters the morning sun into the double height space during mass and also provides solar gain to the space.

We incorporated a reflective mirrored glass so that the internal space maintains privacy and simultaneously reflects the landscape onto the building and provides a striking contrast of urban materials in a green fill site. As vehicles approach around the bend from the main road into Kinglake, the large two storey colourful cross is the first object that can be seen sitting in the green surroundings. At night the building disappears onto the darkness and a glowing cross floats in the darkness of Kinglake.