Wayside Chapel
Architects: enivrona studio
Awarded: Gold medal at the Green Buildings Awards 2004
(awarded by The Francis Greenway Society Inc + The Architecture Show Magazine)

SUMMARY

o This project is for alterations and additions to the existing Wayside Chapel in Hughes St in Potts Point.

o The proposal is for the redevelopment of the existing site.

o The core buildings are retained and two currently dilapidated buildings are demolished and rebuilt at an increased size

o It is intended that this new development for the Wayside Chapel achieve best practise in Environmentally Sustainable Design.

o This will be achieved through the adoption of passive principles, as well as active systems to improve internal amenity, comfort levels, and reduce energy consumption.

o The Wayside Chapel Centre has been designed to take advantage of state of the art sustainable design systems to lower energy and water usage.

o The energy for air-conditioning is greatly reduced by the use of cross-flow lateral ventilation in the meeting rooms and office areas and in the manse.

o The roof has photovoltaic cells mounted and oriented towards the north to provide backup electrical energy to the building.

o The design of the building seeks to maximise natural daylight to all spaces as much as possible

o The artificial lighting systems will be based on the use of Electronic transformer based T8 fluorescent light fittings.

o Rainwater will be collected from the roofs and stored in a water tank beneath the op-shop area for use throughout the building.

INTRODUCTION
This project is for alterations and additions to the existing Wayside Chapel in Hughes St in Potts Point. The proposal is for the redevelopment of the existing site. The core buildings are retained and two currently dilapidated buildings are demolished and rebuilt at an increased size to allow for better space and energy efficiencies and an increase in the availability of the cultural, charitable and community services currently provided.

THE WAYSIDE CHAPEL
The Wayside Chapel was founded in 1964 by the Rev. Ted Noffs. It has been a vital part of life in Kings Cross and Potts Point since its foundation, and offers a small chapel as refuge in the heart of this very busy area. In addition to the chapel itself the centre provides drug and alcohol counselling, a crisis centre, a coffee shop (used as a drop in centre), a bathhouse for homeless people, and houses the offices for a number of social services including a youth team and the national and local Life Education officers. For many years the centre offered a public theatre which was used by local theatre companies for productions, however this has been closed for 18 months due to the state of the existing building. There is also an op-shop called Wayside Creations which has operated out of various buildings and is currently housed at the western end of the site.

DESIGN CONCEPT
The site is on the corner of Hughes St and Orwell Lane and has an area of 694 square metres. It currently houses four interconnected buildings. This design concept is for the demolition of the western two-storey terrace house, and the rear theatre, and the construction of a new five-level building in an L-plan shape to replace those two buildings. In addition, renovations would be made to the existing chapel, and the existing coffee-shop and offices building, to interconnect the buildings so that there is public circulation across all three buildings allowing for a better organisation pattern for the entire Wayside Chapel Centre. The arrangement of uses of the building will remain substantially the same, with the retained two buildings continuing in their existing uses.

NEW BUILDING
With the demolition of the 2 storey building terrace building and existing theatre, the possibility arises for the construction of a wholly new building which will form the backbone of the new centre. It is proposed that this building be built out to the street frontage to provide a more obvious point of entry into the building, to provide closure to the outdoor space, and to provide a building in front of the existing expansive east-facing brick wall of the adjacent four storey apartment block.

PLAN
The new 5 level building has a lift and fire-stair at its core, and provides spaces of public access on the lower levels, rising to more private spaces for the use of Wayside Chapel staff on the next two levels with a manse for the Reverend and family on the 5th level. The ground level provides public access through an airlock to provide thermal isolation between inside and outside, and to allow a "meet and greet" space. A large foyer space is provided since the Chapel often has large groups visiting, and this foyer would also act as the foyer space to the meeting rooms and small theatre on level 2.

BUILT FORM
The materials and construction of the new building will be in a contemporary style, but complimentary to the existing structures. The new building will be in the form of rendered masonry, so as to avoid a clash of brick colours, and to distinguish the old from the new, and to allow for this building to be painted a relatively mid to dark colour to be recessive in its bulk. The fenestration patterns to this building have larger windows which are deeply recessed into the masonry with louvres to control sunlight penetration. At the street edge and the eastern face the openings are smaller in shape and size commensurate with the windows in the windows in the adjacent and opposite apartment buildings.

STREETSCAPE
The DA proposes the retention of the prominent corner building and the adjacent Chapel building, substantially retained in their existing form and height. The external walls and fenestration would be retained and repaired with the existing face brickwork and painted render retained and upgraded. The only change to the building at this point would be the removal of the rear roof with its extension up to provide additional space together with the requisite service space and support for the solar panels at the roof level. In this way the existing streetscape and appearance of the building is substantially retained, particularly in its view from McLeay Street, down Hughes St to this prominent local site.