This project is based on an actual brief drawn up jointly by the Protestant churches of Almelo, a town in the east of the country. The plan is sited in the church square (Kerkplein), at the hub of the three zones colouring the central area of Almelo: the historical core, the fiddly-scaled rear of a shopping street, and the outer rim of the old county estates. The intention is to stitch together the various zones using articulated masses to create an unbroken urban space. This would increase the usefulness of town and building alike. The components of the ensemble are carefully positioned so as to sustain the object-world of Kerkplein, and adhere as one to the urban fabric. Articulating the built masses bridges the differences in scale, lashing them together into a single thrust. The detailing bears out this articulation, seeking to mesh with the pictorial character of the surroundings and extending from the well-proportioned classicism of the main church (Grote Kerk) to the visual idiom of the backyards.

The brief divides into two distinct buildings, with office functions in one and a pair of reception rooms in the other. As an architectural space, the interior is part of an urban continuum where each place is defined as a component of that chain. Courtyards and drops in height in the interior orchestrate the routes through the building. The proposal works to achieve an architectural space that clearly locates one's every position in the urban context. In the main church space I sought to effect a certain distance from the immediate surroundings. An extra outer skin reveals only the prospect of distant roofs and the foliage of the trees. Inside the church, the outer wall is a metaphor for the urban space beyond, expressing internally the fact of a church-in-the-town.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Max Risselada, Peter Lüthi & Henk Mihl