A Curious Competition for a Protestant Church in the Netherlands
Herman van Bergeijk (TU Delft - History, Form & Aesthetics)
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Abstract
In recent years various scientific studies have been published focusing on church building in the Netherlands in the post-war period. From an international perspective, however, the certain developments remain if not unknown at least underexposed. One of them is a competition for a Reformed Church in 1963 between architects that would set their mark on architecture in the Sixties and Seventies. Although the location was not within a major city, but on the outskirts of a smaller one, it highlights a crucial moment, or as Belgian architectural historian Marc Dubois, echoing Geert Bekaert, called it, ‘a pivotal moment’ in the history of the Netherlands heralding the end of the ecclesiastical pillarization. This article offers an accurate reconstruction of the competition, that was held between different architects who would later be considered as the main exponents of the Structuralist movement.
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