Kapel van de Ontluiking

At first sight, the space created by tcct in response to the brief excludes all reference to the iconography and liturgy associated with the original chapel. Wooden panels with a white finish extend over the walls, while shutters cover the ten stained glass windows depicting saints, as well as the altar and the windows facing the garden. In this intensely internalised environment, the focus turns towards the inner psychological space of the visitor.

Before entering the chapel, the visitor is required to remove his or her shoes and to leave them on the wooden benches in the low-ceilinged entranceway: an unusual act upon entering a sacred Christian space. Inside, cylindrical wooden seats are scattered across a floor covered with sand – a substance that feels cool and soft underfoot. If needed, the light levels can be adjusted via lamps set within a ceiling covered with a layer of taught white fabric.

Ironically, the abstraction gives the project a feeling closer to that of a mosque than a traditional Christian place of worship. In Islamic religious architecture, flowers, colours, compositions, abstract ornamentation and calligraphy take on a heightened symbolic function in response to the ban on depictions of the human form. In this chapel, there is less visual information but, nevertheless, it feels like a very welcoming space.

Author: Asli çiçek. This text has been published in the Architecture Review Flanders N°11. Embedded Architecture.