Between Ima Summis and nearness. Dom Hans van der Laan’s Roosenberg Abbey as an example of a contemporary space of worship

Abstract

Bloomsbury Journals, Spaces of Faith (Vol. 6 Issue 3 – 2015). This paper interweaves the architectural concepts and elementary architecture of Roosenberg Abbey in Belgium with the motivations and search of its creator: the Dutch monk-architect Dom Hans van der Laan (1904–1991). The abbey was built in 1975 for the Marian Sisters of Franciscus, who sought an austere place that adhered closely with their own experience of Catholic faith. Dom Hans van der Laan designed the building as a materialization and testing ground of his ideas put forward in his publications Architectonic Space (1970) and The Play of Forms (1985). Although the religious concepts behind his thoughts grew from his own Benedictine background, he developed an architectural philosophy that aimed to define spaces of worship through universal characteristics as dwelling and living. He interpreted the Dyonisian concept of ‘Ima Summis’ (the lowest in reconciliation with the highest) not from a transcendental perspective, but through the concrete material world of architecture that grew from human experience. For that, he developed the concepts of nearness and superposition, an architectural methodology that combines a classical ordering system with a modern dynamic spatiality. For van der Laan, building a space of faith is to create an order as a layered inside in constant but gradual relation to an outside. He called this concept of interweaving mass and space ‘nearness’. Although his writings are quite poetic, his design methodology with the central concept of ‘superposition’ is very concrete and practical.For two years, the Marian Sisters of Franciscus have worked together with the philosopher Dr. Marc Colpaert to open up their abbey as a place for contemplation and the study of interreligious dialog. They count amongst their guest lecturers Islamic scholars such as the Pakistani psychologist Prof. Durre Ahmen, who introduces the abbey to Muslims as a place for Ressourcement, and Omar Nahas and Sergio Scattolini, who organize seminars on the reading of the Koran. This shows that the requirements put forward by van der Laan from a Benedictine perspective for the Maria Sisters of Franciscus overcome a specific ideological focus, offering a more universal approach towards the design of spaces of faith. This paper will analyze Roosenberg Abbey as a testimony of these requirements.