It’s not every day an architect wins a competition to design a cathedral. And when it’s one that’s been unfinished for more than 70 years, with detailed liturgical and heritage considerations, it can be a mixed blessing.
A lot of people will be looking over the shoulder of Peter Quinn during the next couple of years: fellow architects, church-goers, heritage advocates, and a considerable part of Perth’s population.
Quinn is the architect who won the competition to draw up concept plans to complete the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commonly known as St Mary’s Cathedral, in WA. The cathedral is a landmark heritage building that’s still unfinished, even though it first opened in 1865.
It’s not the first time Quinn has designed a church. He’s been responsible for designing four suburban churches and a chapel in Western Australia. It’s a specialised form of architecture, with special considerations.
‘There’s all the liturgical basics that you have to know but somehow you’ve got to imbue the place with the transcendent, that’s the difficult bit,’ explains Quinn. ‘The cathedral is probably easier in some respects because of the extreme heights and the volumes that can go into it. The existing large volumes and heights already give you a sense of space and grandeur.
‘You’ve got to create that feeling somehow, that when you walk into it, you’re in a special place. I don’t think you can rely on liturgical furnishings and furniture to provide that. It’s got to be more than that. It’s about light, light and space and volume.’
And in this case, it’s all about completing a job begun more than 70 years ago. Unlike an unwieldy house extension that’s had bits cobbled on over the years, the cathedral has already been extended over the decades. As a result, it’s a mish-mash of styles long unsuited to being the main house of worship in the Archdiocese.
The challenge now is to finish the cathedral, and open it up to make it function as a working church, while preserving as much as possible of the heritage elements of the building.
What is now the present cathedral began in 1865 as a modest Italian-style structure suited to the needs of churchgoers in Queen Victoria’s era. Additions, including a porch and steeple for the bell tower, were made around 1909. And in the 1920s, the decision was made to completely replace it with a much larger, more