This work examines the transitory meaning of an architectural object in the landscape, in this case: The church. A rich history tells the story of the transformation of the typology of the church in NL- BE border zone around Baarle in relation to the [re]formation of the landscape, and its users.

This work examines the transitory meaning of an architectural object in the landscape, in this case: The church. A rich history tells the story of the transformation of the typology of the church in NL- BE border zone around Baarle in relation to the [re]formation of the landscape, and its users.

The religious building, once anchored as a self-contained entity in the landscape, brought with it strong currents of movements. Historical events caused people to initially settle around this entity and later on to leave. The church and the landscape can be seen as a continuous space for small-scale migration and remigration within this territory. Old settlement patterns can still be recognized in the landscape today. The cultivation of surrounding land as a result of these settlement patterns can also be traced back to the church.

While initially the church was conceived and designed mainly as a religious institution which can be seen very strongly in its typology and organization of its plan, it also took other forms throughout its history. Important moments in history gave this entity in the landscape new meanings. It was no longer just about the religious institution as one of the most important places in society. It managed to wring itself free from this and was transformed into an object in which could establish new relationships with people and the landscape, being used as a mathematical model to map the land and its distance. But it also became an identity and a point of a reference for a specific place.

These diverse entities are fused together in a single typology. But what if we peel off this layering,  thinking of it as separate objects, and then put them back together? Can the power of typology give new meanings to the relationship between object (church), man and landscape? The awareness of this layering gives us tools to look at our built environment in a different way.

The design translates into a stack of self-contained entities, at the intersection of a number of important historical axes. With this, the object anchors itself as very location specific in the border area around Baarle. The mutual layers symbolize the different identities of the church as an object which can affect the reorganization of its surrounding landscape and a different perception of a larger territory and are designed in a self-explanatory assemble. They are housed in a monolithic volume, referring to the church as an unambiguously designed typology. This tension field is designed by an interaction between the positive and negative spaces within the volume. The access that connects the spaces like a spiral staircase acts as a continuous space in the monolithic object. The eventual assembly tends to re-interpret the historical transformation of the church as an object bounded in its landscape and its relationship to the larger territory.