A New Cathedral for Sydney
April 2026
Níall McLaughlin Architects has been appointed to design a new Catholic Cathedral in Sydney’s Waitara suburb, as the centrepiece of a new spiritual, civic and cultural precinct for the Diocese of Broken Bay, in New South Wales.
The Cathedral Precinct Project will establish an integrated centre of Catholic life in the region and is poised to become a distinctive local landmark and a spiritual focal point for the parishes of the Northern Beaches, Central Coast, and North Shore.
Key to the project vision is the creation of a lifelong journey for congregants: from Baptism through to early learning, primary, and secondary education – ensuring the Cathedral is a living centre that serves all ages of its community.
The design highlights responsible, sustainable materials that complement the natural setting, in keeping with Pope Francis’s call to care for our common home.
Generous public spaces will embed the site within the neighbourhood and welcome the community – creating a place that prioritises people and permeability.
The international competition was organised by the diocese and led by the Archbishop Anthony Randazzo DD JCL, for the Hornsby Cathedral Parish community and the entire Diocese of Broken Bay.
Niall lecture in Australia
August 2024
On the 14th September Níall will be speaking at Stories of Earth: Echoes in Architecture at the University of Technology in Sydney. Níall's talk is titled About Time.
'A place is somewhere we return to. This is what sets it apart from the continuous flow of topography. Our connection to a place is renewed with each visit. Therefore, it has a special connection with time. We might say that the concept of place has as much to do with time as with area. Archaeologists researching the earliest permanent houses look for a telltale sign: one hearth built above another as an act of conscious representation. It tells us that some little band, family, or community saw their bonds lasting over a longer duration. This was something that could be given material presence. The first houses gave us a history. They encouraged us to believe that we could jointly invest in more ambitious activities whose returns were not immediately available. This expanded horizon transformed human culture. It also gave us our present conception of architecture, which is, above all, a representation of temporal depth. Níall will speak about architecture as a material embodiment of time.'
Níall will be joined by Rick Joy, Marina Tabassum Marusa Zorec and Peter Stuchbury.
The event page can be accessed here.