A House for the spirit

In 1977 the architect and monk Dom Hans van der Laan published‘The Architectonic Space, 15 lessons in the Disposition of Human Dwelling’. This was a theory that was intended to capture and bring order to the essence of the spatial experience as the basis for the design process.‘A house for the spirit’ seeks out the tangible world associated with Van der Laan’s philosophy.

While engaged in writing his treatise, Van der Laan was building Roosenberg Abbey in Waasmunster. He worked on it intuitively, employing such concepts as ‘proximity’ and ‘superimposition’ as spatial gestures for stillness and spirituality, and for the intensity of encounters. In addition to original drawings and models, you can see analyses of teaching material, furniture, crockery, clothes and typography. Objects that are silent witnesses to a stay at the abbey.

In addition to his strict idea of proportion, Van der Laan also believed in creating a certain atmosphere. For this reason, the exhibition makes room for three artists whose art refers to the tactile nature of his work. The German photographer Friederike Von Rauch exhibits a series of photos that she made while staying in Roosenberg Abbey. Ingel Vaikla, a film-maker from Estonia, displays a moving portrait of the nuns during their final days in Roosenberg. And Esther Venrooy, a Dutch sound artist, developed a soundscape and a video work representing life in the abbey and the house of the architect Jan de Jong and his wife Riek de Jong.