Monumentale veranderingen

De verhouding tussen geschiedschrijving, erfgoedbeleid en ontwerp

Samenvatting

Monumental Changes. The Relationship between Historiography, Heritage Policy and Design

When buildings lose their original function and new users take possession of it, the relationship between the building and its users changes. This relationship has often existed for a long time and has evolved organically in time. The end of this relationship is to some extent the end of a building's historical continuity. However, on a more general level its continuity is preserved. Monuments play a role in the construction of history, making the continuity between past and present visible and making it possible to experience this. This relationship with the past is a (mental) construction. Hence heritage preservation is a form of historiography.

In preservation there are two fundamental issues. Firstly, which part of the past should be preserved; and secondly, which (new) meaning should be attached to a building. Contemporary ideas about heritage already take into account the context of value and area development and the broader ‘historical narrative’. The downside of this approach however is that the historical object itself is lost. This article explores the historical and future meanings of a couple of architectural characteristics of the monastery of Mariadal in Roosendaal.

The monastery typology of the nineteenth century is not only based on the need for religious contemplation but also on the principle of social seclusion. Nowadays this typology can, for example, be used to offer a protected environment for vulnerable people.

Many monasteries in North Brabant are situated along the ‘ribbon’ developments. This resulted in a double orientation, where at the front side, the monastery seamlessly fits into the urban structure. At the rear side, an autonomous and secluded sphere is created. This ambiguous morphology has a great potential in the contemporary city, consistency on the inside and diversity on the outside.

The garden of Mariadal is considered to be a good example of the phenomenon of the monastery garden. The monastery garden played an essential part in the monastic way of life in which work, contemplation and recreation are integrated and kept in balance. More than its physical (or formal) characteristics, this could be considered to be the essence of the monastery garden. Unlike the claustrum in the medieval monastery, the nineteenth century claustrum does not have a real function. In a contemporary interpretation it could connect to the surrounding corridors, diminishing the disciplinary character of the monastery.

The architectural style of the chapel intensifies the direct experience of God’s creation by means of three main effects (each with a specific meaning): the sensory experience of light and colour (the experience of nature), the enclosure by the brick fabric (the enclosure of a community) and the geometric patterns in the construction (the representation of universal truth). Together they form a Gesamtkunstwerk with the aim of bringing the visitor closer to God, nature, the community and oneself. From a contemporary perspective, this might be too hermetic. But the architecture could still work as an enclosure for a community. albeit probably for a different kind of community, more open to the city.