CHURCH TO APARTMENTS TRANSFORMATION
HOYT Architecten
The city center of Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed in the bombing of May 1940 . After the second world war , the city tried to rebuild itself quickly during a period called ‘ De Wederopbouw ’ or ‘ The Reconstruction . In a short period of time , Rotterdam reinvented itself with new buildings in an austere , modern , efficient and pragmatic style .
Today we look back on this postwar period with pride . Many of these young post-war buildings are declared monuments . Buildings which in other cities might be seen as common fifties and sixties buildings are monuments in Rotterdam . When your complete historic city center is destroyed you are very careful with whatever buildings are left .
One of the buildings built in this ‘ Wederopbouw ’ period was the Church in Overschie in the northern part of the city . Built in 1953 , it only served as a church for about 65 years . This was caused by the rapid secularization of Dutch society . Only 46 % of the Dutch say that they are religious . Since the church was not used for worshipping anymore but was a listed building the only option was to transform the church into another kind of building . A development which is quite common nowadays in the Netherlands .
16 - www . refurbandrestore . co . uk