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CHURCH

A.E. VAN EYCK, 1964-1969, Aaltje Noordewierstraat 4, Den Haag

ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Aldo van Eyck

BUILDING TYPE:
Religious buildings

An inscrutable box of grey concrete block conceals a welter of effects of space, light and form. This church combines a tall space (11 metres), an interior street accommodating all the sacred places and attributes and a low congregation hall (2.5-3.5 metres) with built-in pews. Circular rooflights and semi-circular walls the height of a man construct a labyrinth in both floor plan and roof. Roof beams divide up the concrete cylindrical rooflights, emphasizing the structure and lending an ambiguity to the resulting semicircles.