Beyond Functionalism. How the Everyday and the Utopian Meet in Reused Parish Churches

Abstract

The parish churches of Flanders are under permanent scrutiny. Most of the actors involved in the future of the church buildings, however, happen to reason in very ‘functional’ terms. The main issue—or so it appears—is to find the correct new ‘function’ for each parish church in order for this ‘problem’ to be solved once and for all. Building on field research and literature, this paper argues that such a line of reasoning is at odds with the very nature of church buildings. The parish church, this paper holds, is a unique building because of its public ‘potential’. Not only does a parish church offer a possible glimpse of utopia, it is also strongly connected with the sphere of the everyday. The main argument of the paper consists of theoretical and practical explorations that connect the everyday with the utopian. Aspects of public space, local engagement and the ‘autonomy’ of the church architecture are the threads that are being stretched between the everyday and the utopian. From a continuous mediation between literature and practice, this paper seeks to build a theory that, in its dealings with these (old) buildings, is explicitly ‘church building related’, rather than merely generic and simply ‘functional’. Thus, the present situation—architecturally and socially—informs possible futures for the church buildings.