VISION 42 — THE RETURN OF RADIANCE
The feature arched window deserves comment.
The rear of the church originally had a massive arch
opening. That created this focal point when you entered
the church. I thought: “I can’t lose that, it’s so beautiful”.
I chose to infill it with glazing and along the bottom is a
sliding door which we planned to eventually lead to a
deck area and garden. With all that glazing you will look
out onto green and sky, what could be more beautiful?
I looked at other big archways through history and
found another church that was renovated for a residential
project in Victoria of similar style. I thought that worked
so well, I adopted and modified it to suit this building.
Obviously it ties everything together and it links the
church to the house. For me, I can’t think of anything
worse than looking out onto a roof deck, a metal deck.
You get nothing from it. Because we’re in such a dense
urban environment I wanted to bring in more green
through the rooftop garden.
You have referred to Roy Grounds’ mid-20th century
house as an important influence.
It’s an extraordinary building and a classic piece of
architecture. That house focuses on the courtyard being
the biggest space in the house. I just ran with that and
thought the new house needs to be open to the light
and we achieved that with the immense amounts of glass.
I need to get as much light in from the north and west as
possible and have the building feel quite light compared
to the solidity of the church. When I opened the church
up, I was wowed by how much light entered through
the arches.
Did you ever envisage another life for the church other
than as an indoor backyard?
The entire church was designed to become an office with
a mezzanine, dining room and cinema underneath, and
definitely a play area for the kids. At some point we
decided to just leave the church as is. You want to finish
everything and make everything beautiful and perfect
and immaculate. We moved in and realised the house
is so pristine and church a perfect juxtaposition being
worn and rough and unfinished, it’s actually quite
beautiful. The more you live with it the more you think
“well it actually doesn’t really need anything done to it.”