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Concrete Matters

Concrete Matters

Language: NL/EN
Campus: Brussels/Ghent
Number of students: max 3
Supervision: Femke Van der Meulen, Sven Sterken

Illustration: Church of our Lady of Blankedelle, interior. Photo © URBAN, 2022.

Theme A testimony to a period of war recovery, economic expansion and extensive population growth, the lion share of our contemporary built environment consists of buildings realized after WWII. Churches constitute a very significant part of the built production of this period. In Belgium, hundreds of them were built to cater for the rapidly spreading suburban areas around the main centres like Antwerp or Brussels, or in the newly industrialized Campine area. Despite their spatial presence and social meaning, these structures are overlooked today; in a context of rapid and seemingly irreversible secularization, many churches suffer from poor maintenance, have become vacant, or are simply awaiting demolition. One important factor in this rapid decay lies in the material used to build them: concrete. Allowing for rapid and cheap construction as well as unprecedented formal liberty, the material was used plentiful in structural, architectural and decorative ways. As rudimentary and perennial as it may seem, concrete requires in fact rigorous design, meticulous execution and life-long maintenance. Unfortunately, this was often not the case with churches for they were built and maintained on a tight budget. As a result, today, many fine concrete examples are in a sorry state, often beyond reasonable repair.

Topic With a view to enhance the knowledge about post-war churches in Flanders and Brussels in general, and the typical building pathologies related to concrete in these buildings in particular, this master dissertation studies one prime example of a concrete church building, namely the church of Our Lady of Blankendelle in Brussels, realized by Alain Debaeke and Pierre Pinsard between 1963 and 1970. Built in exposed concrete and rough brick, this vast building is characterized by a lack of ostentation and luxury, which is compensated for by a very poetic treatment of natural light in the interior. The aim of this thesis is to proceed to an in-depth investigation of this church from a triple perspective. In the first place, an architectural historical one: who built this church, and for what reason? Which conversation between client, designer and authorities is embodied in this building? Why did this involve the services of a well-known Parisian architect? In the second place, the perspective of construction history: what materials were used here, how and to what effect? This can provide us with clues as to the current pathologies in this building. And finally, a design perspective: to what extent do the material characteristics and spatial qualities of this building offer clues for its future use? Such questions are also at the base of the larger FWO-funded research project this master dissertation is embedded in, namely ‘Meaning and Material. Towards a Multidisciplinary Assessment of Post-War Church Roofs in a Context of Adaptive Reuse’. Supervised by prof. Sven Sterken (KU Leuven) and prof. Stephanie Van de Voorde (VUB), the research is carried out by Femke Van der Meulen (KU Leuven) and Chiara Kuijpers (VUB) as part of a doctorate.

Set-up It is expected that site visits, archival work, collecting relevant documentation and scrutinizing of the literature are conducted in the first semester, during which a number of reading seminars will be organized to become acquainted with the broader context of the research questions. In case several students subscribe to this topic, this phase will be mainly involve collective work. The second semester, by contrast, will be devoted to individual research according to one of the aforementioned perspectives and will be followed up on a bi-weekly rhythm on average by Femke Van der Meulen; the supervisor will be present at intermediate reviews. Note that the output is expected to be primordially text-based, with a varying share of visual material according to the perspective chosen. Also, note that a (good) passive knowledge of French and Dutch is an absolute prerequisite for this thesis.

References