Architecture Day at SCHUNCK

In 2024, the theme of Architecture Day is ‘Making Space’. The national event will take place on 13, 14, 15 and 16 June 2024. On and around these days, various architecture initiatives will organise walks, tours, bike rides and other activities. With the prospect of the year 2025, the year of Heerlen's heritage, in which at SCHUNCK reuse of the Euroregional religious heritage will be central, the activities around the upcoming Architecture Day focus on repurposed churches. Every village, town and city district in the region once had a church building, often a landmark one. Many of these churches are now empty, have been reused or are threatened with demolition.

Lecture: Architectural quality in redevelopment

On 14 June, Roel De Ridder gives a lecture at SCHUNCK on the architectural quality in redevelopment of empty churches in Flanders. Roel De Ridder (1982) obtained a PhD in architecture from UHasselt in 2013. Since graduating as an architect in 2007, he has been studying the future of Flemish parish churches. In his lecture ‘Architectural quality in the reallocation of Flemish parish churches’, Roel explains why the reallocation of these churches has been slow to take off. Throughout the lecture, Roel exposes the many concerns and sensitivities of the discourse in Flanders.  

Roel De Ridder's lecture will take place in the Auditorium of SCHUNCK, on 14 June 2024, from 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. The lecture is free, but visitors are requested to register via the website. 

Bus tour on 15 June

For those curious about the innovative ways in which former church buildings are being put to new uses, there will be a bus tour of repurposed church buildings on Saturday 15 June. 

More and more churches are closing their doors and religious communities are saying goodbye to their familiar houses of worship. These changes make room for new functions and present challenges to make a space suitable for a new life of historic buildings. This ties in perfectly with the theme ‘Making Space’. This tour offers a unique look at how architecture and creativity come together to breathe new life into empty church buildings.  

The bus will first visit the Bernardinuskapel in Heerlen, which has already been repurposed as a temporary council chamber of the municipality of Heerlen. There are also plans to turn it into a learning space, in line with the plans to move educational institutions from the outskirts of Heerlen to the city centre. These plans will be presented when visiting the chapel. The next stop is the former Paterskerk in Geleen, which was recently transformed into a medical centre after twenty-five years of vacancy. The last stop will be the St Kamillus columbarium in Mönchengladbach, set up in a remarkable church by architect Dominikus Böhm. The bus departs at 9:30 a.m. from the car park opposite St Joseph's Church (Dr Clemens Meulemanstraat 1, Heerlerbaan). The tour ends at about 5:00 p.m., at the same car park. Cost: € 15,- (including packed lunch). Tickets can be found here. 

About Architecture Day 

Since 1986, Architecture Day has been a national phenomenon attracting a large number of visitors interested in architecture and urban development. Many towns and cities open up special buildings and offer a programme of lectures, debates, exhibitions, films and excursions. Locally, each town or region interprets the programme in its own way. Since 2020, the overarching national theme of the activities is determined by the Stichting Coördinatie Lokale Architectuurinitiatieven (St. CoLA) in close consultation with the architecture centres.