Dutch architects Merkx + Girod have won the Lensvelt de Architect Interior Prize 2007 for their Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen in Maastricht - a bookstore inside a former Dominican church.
The prize jury said: “Merkx+Girod architects have created a contemporary bookshop in a former Dominican church, preserving the unique landmark setting. The church has been restored to its former glory and the utilities equipment has been housed in the extended cellar.
“In order to preserve the character of the church while achieving the desired commercial square footage, the architects erected a two-storey structure in black steel on one side, where the books are kept. Keeping the shop arrangement on the other side low created a clear and decipherable shop. The jury was very impressed by these spatial solutions, as well as by the gorgeous lighting plan. The combination of book complex and church interior were deemed particularly successful.”
Photos are by Roos Aldershoff. NB if you like this, have at look at Qubus Studio’s interior for the St. Bartholomew’s Church in the village of Chodovice, Eastern Bohemia.
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Posted by Marcus Fairs
December 4th, 2007 at 1:33 am
This is wrong.
December 4th, 2007 at 3:21 am
Have to say what a stunning conversion. It really is a fantastic idea
December 4th, 2007 at 6:17 am
Absolutely stunning preservation work. Why should an alter be a place where just one person can read when the spaces are as god damn gorgeous as this (sorry for the blasphemy, i just thought it suited…)!
December 4th, 2007 at 8:42 am
¡wow! This is so cool
December 4th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Get with the times Jesus. I think its great. Rennovation of the building looks hot and good lighting!
December 4th, 2007 at 9:28 am
very impressive .
December 4th, 2007 at 9:48 am
This must be God’s most favourable house! Coffee, books and beautiful architecture what else can you wish for!
December 4th, 2007 at 9:55 am
From one form of worship to another. Through many books, the worship of knowledge rather than through one book, the following of doctrine. It’s a fitting programme for this incredible building. It’s only a shame that it’s a shop and not a public library really.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:10 am
I agree with Jesus.
December 4th, 2007 at 11:19 am
wasn ‘ t the church always after money anyway ? think the Vatican ..
so, a shop is perhaps less hypocrytical .
sorry God - not having a go at you - but the institution really .
December 4th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Think it looks gorgeous, but also not sure if it’s right to do this - especially the crucifix shaped table in the coffee shop!! For some reason, I too would be much happier had it been a public library. Strange.
December 4th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I think it is gorgeous, as (nearly) all Gothic curches are. But sadly less and less people go to church in The Netherlands (my home country) and many churches have to close. Most (smaller than this one) are then demolished, because it is ‘wrong’ to give the House of God an other purpose. But this is a fantastic solution! The coffeetable is cool as well, it’s right on the edge, thus generating discussion and emotions.
December 4th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
no way.. it is as a fist in an eye
December 4th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
the last picture is stunning!
As time changes, the church is losing it’s presence. Re-using like this can help the city embrace these fantastic buildings again. Otherwise they will get lost…
December 5th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Adaptive re-use of churches often gets attention purely because of controversey. I’m sure that it was not the architect’s choice to turn the church into a bookstore, but they are certainly benefitting from the post modern poetics of the program itself. Besides, in the age of new media, a bookstore will soon be more obsolete than a church. And I agree that the cruciform coffee table is tasteless.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
that is outstanding
December 5th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
truly amazing!
December 9th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
that crucifix shaped coffee-table was my idea…
December 9th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
This space is beautiful, but I think that turning church into bookstore is just not wright. Church is a place where peaple meet with God.
December 30th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I love architecture, beautiful spaces, and bookstores, but this seems wrong to me. I’m not sure a bike storage space is any better, but I would not shop here, were it in my city.
December 30th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
This is better then a conversion near my hometown in Denver, Colorado where a church was converted into a freaky dance club…
http://www.clubzone.com/c/Denver/Nightclub/The_Church.html
December 30th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Wrong or not - there are a lot of old churches with shrinking congregations that are being forced to merge into nearby churches of the same denomination.
I guess you have to choose between someone reusing the structure, or it sitting abandoned.
December 30th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I think it’s pretty neat.
December 30th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
I’m all set then. Books are my preferred version of omniscience.
December 31st, 2007 at 11:23 am
Do My Boys Need A Nap?
December 31st, 2007 at 11:44 am
A church building is just a building. It’s always just a building. Don’t ever worship the building or think that the entity or energy that created everything could be contained in any edifice!
December 31st, 2007 at 4:18 pm
i bet it gets more visitors as a bookshop than it did as a church, i doubt the congregation where evicted to make way for this? few right minede people would accuse the dutch state of being stalinist and turning a church into a culutal palace for the workers
The congregation most probably all died of old age? The cruciform table does cheapen the othewise very high class conversion, a simple straight table would have served equally as well.
At least the building has been retian for a cultural purpose, and is still a hub of information,knowledge and cultural exchange and will be respected by those who choose to enter the building rather than resented by those compelled or obliged to enter every sunday?
The old methodist chapel near me has been turned into a Sikh Temple!
December 31st, 2007 at 4:37 pm
You are an idiot.
December 31st, 2007 at 11:19 pm
This is right.
January 1st, 2008 at 7:37 pm
And you are a bigot with a pea-sized brain.
January 1st, 2008 at 10:53 pm
What a great mash-up! It totally works, but I’m surprised by my reaction to the altar. I’m impressed by how comfortably they have merged a church and a bookstore in this shared space. Yet it also looks to me as if these institutions are regrouping in their fortress against a protracted siege.
The black metal and the stone columns both impart much solidity and permanence. Ironic, considering how the powers of both organized religion and printed books have diminished in recent years.
Books and religion have such a long shared history, and this combination suggests some interesting lines of thought. To wit:
Once this enormous stone hall issued the word of God and divine law; The voice is still there, but now it’s merely one among many other mortal authors.
And only a few years ago, nearly all our written communication had to be printed, copy by copy, and now our screens handle so much information, we let much of it pass without recording. When e-books become a comfortable enough substitute for wood pulp (and a suitable compensation system implemented, heaven forfend!), will we still print books? And sell them in bookstores?
I think so (just like I think we’re still stuck with junk mail, for at least this last generation or so), there is something unique about working your thumb through a stack of pages that no computer has yet to improve on, and browsing the stacks at your local bookstore (with a warm cup of Earl Grey tea) sure the hell beats surfing amazon.
I wonder what will we deem worthy of the permanence of bleached wood pulp and colored soybean oil in 2050? Besides the Bible, I mean.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Go to Europe and see the ruins…
January 10th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
This makes Baby Jesus cry!
January 11th, 2008 at 4:55 am
I think it’s tragic that church attendance has fallen enough for these magnificent churches not to be used in their original capacity, but if they’re not going to be used as churches, it’s better for them to be used as something, so the beautiful architecture will be kept in repair, than for them to be abandoned and to fall into ruin.
And I’d much rather see a former church used as a bookstore than a dance club.
There’s nothing morally wrong with making it a bookstore, once it has been deconsecrated and the Blessed Sacrament isn’t kept there anymore. At that point, it is simply a beautiful building, once Christ isn’t there in the Eucharist anymore.
January 11th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Gordon: You are right - and dead wrong at the same time. A church is just a building, but it is dedicated to the worship of God. In the concepts of antique Rome, it is “fanum” - sacred - while everything else, outside the “sacred precinct” is “pro-fanum”. Ever wonder where the word profane came from? You are right, one cannot worship a church (although you can worship meteorites if you follow the right brand of monotheism). Think of a church as God’s offices - an office, where the boss is always ready to see you. However, it is a sad fact that - if God is not in your heart already - you won’t find hinm at church, either.
- As to the design: Well, it could have been much worse. When the Nazis de-secrated churches, they put other things in the buildings than books (books can be so dangerous!). In one monastery I know of, they planned to convert the church into a swimming hall, with the toilets and the showers in the chancel … how long will it take for some architect to come up with that as perfect solution for the next church-to-be-converted?
January 15th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Get a life, Jesus!
The church in question was not “in service” since Napoleontic days; as the french took Maastricht, they confiscated most of the churches and threw out the clergy. This particular church served as a stable (for the horses of the regiment) for years, after which it saw another 200 years as storageroom, markethall, beergarden, bicycle-parking, partycenter. In the seventies of the last century it was almost completely hidden from view by the surrounding ugly concrete malls. As these where torn down a couple of years ago, the church was given a final chance for the better - as a bookshop, and a sublime one as that. Analyze that, Jesus!
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
It’s OK, but that crucifix table is really tasteless, why do architects have to be ‘clever’ for the sake of it sometimes, if they’d left that out it would have been a very classy effort.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
absolutely sublime
July 9th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Well, Bill, I have no problem with the table. I think it can be viewed as a reminder of what that church is meant to represent. It doesn’t have to be vertical with a body draped on it.
I agree, however, that it should be a library. The space is breathtaking, and it should be made available for public use.
August 4th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Don’t listen to God or Jesus… magnificent shop guys!
August 25th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Now that’s one way to get more people to attend church!
Absolutely love it.
August 25th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
This is absolutely gorgeous. Great idea, best way for preservation. Although I back up some of the comments above, it would be perfect if it could be a library instead of a bookstore but it’s better to be used in some way that not being used at all.
March 10th, 2009 at 7:02 am
perfect!
finally this building will be used more than a couple of hours per week…
May 10th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
After church comes the book store. Bravo!
I don’t have any objections to going to church is a bookstore . . . or to a book store in a church …?
Alberti recognised that “to gaze upwards in awe and amazement” is one particularly important aspect of the space in a church. He probably never imagined that this is also true for a book store.
I love the “awesome[nity]” of this spatial experience