Stella Maris Catholic Church had its beginnings in a collaborative master plan process. The objective was to explore future possibilities for the parish’s land and its former church in central Maroochydore. Deicke Richards worked initially with Stella Maris and later with both the parish and aged care provider, St Vincent’s Care Services. The result is an innovative care community which brings together the new church and aged care and wellness facilities.
The design of the church responds expressively to its subtropical coastal location, with the interior skirted by generous and deeply shaded space. Marble and brass sanctuary items are set against an interior palette of polished concrete, ply and timber. The interior’s furniture, lighting, screens and sanctuary items were designed by DR. The design team worked with artisans and artists who created the hand painted icons and refurbished stations of the cross, locally produced pews (using reclaimed timber from the former church pews) and the cross (carved from a mango tree grown on the site). The sanctuary items were cut from Italian marble and finished by locally based stonemasons.
‘Maroochydore is no ordinary parish and this is no ordinary church’
– Archbishop of Brisbane, The Most Reverend Mark Coleridge, speaking at the church’s Solemn Dedication.
DR provided comprehensive design services, from the master planning process and options for development, through to architectural design and interiors.
The completed project is a public building with an important community function. It’s a great example, in a regional city, of the possibilities for co-locating aged care with existing or new community facilities. The outcomes are not only better use of land, but greater community building and social cohesion.
This serves as a great example . . . of the possibilities for co-locating aged care with existing or new community facilities.
The church was shortlisted in the prestigious 2018 Australian Interior Design Awards and shortlisted in the AIA’s 2018 Queensland Architecture Awards in the public buildings category.
- Client
Stella Maris Catholic Parish, Maroochydore
- Year
2016
- Collaborators
Pews – Page Furnishers
Stations of the cross & icons – Lucy & Ziggy Pawlikowski
Stonemasons – Mar Gra Pty Ltd- Photography
Cathy Schusler
