Architecture Australia

Environa Studio

Sydney’s Kings Cross in the 1960s was an eclectic cacophony of tourism, entertainment, a red-light district and illegal casinos and drugs. When Reverend Ted Noffs established the Wayside Chapel in 1964, it provided a small but much-needed support facility for the disaffected youth who had gravitated toward the Cross and to whom society had turned a blind eye.

The Wayside, as it is affectionately known, quickly became a vital institution for the community in and around Kings Cross. Originally occupying two rooms in a low-rise apartment block at 29 Hughes Street, it quickly grew to accommodate a chapel, a coffee shop, a crisis centre, the first office for the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs and a theatre designed by celebrated Sydney architect John James. By the 1970s Wayside had

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Architecture Australia

Architecture Australia5 min read
Geelong Arts Centre (Stage 3) ARM Architecture
My first thought on seeing ARM Architecture’s Little Malop Street Redevelopment for the Geelong Arts Centre (GAC) is: Have they gone too far this time? The building is wrapped in what appears to be a white billowing curtain, complete with twisted cor
Architecture Australia6 min read
Powerhouse Castle Hill Lahznimmo Architects
A grid of 12 square photographs shows a eucalyptus plantation: in some, the leaf-covered ground is at close range; others capture the ordered rhythm of the tamed trees; and others reveal the foliage canopy against the sky. In a further series, two la
Architecture Australia4 min read
Nambucca Heads Library Extension Vokes and Peters with Zuzana and Nicholas
On the ridge of a hill in Nambucca Heads on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales is a post office, gallery, community hall and public library. The library has been recently renovated by Vokes and Peters with Zuzana and Nicholas.1 But the project is

Related