Benedictine thought as a catalyst for 20st Century liturgical space. The motivations behind Dom Hans van der Laan’s ascetic church architecture

摘要

Already in his first classes on church architecture just before WWII, the Benedictine monk-architect Dom Hans van der Laan (1904-1991) condemned liturgical meaning through symbolism. Long before the Second Vatican Council, he made several plans to alter churches in order to enhance the celebration, stripping them from all ornamentation. Especially in those early days, Dom van der Laan’s position was quiet subversive and his approach repeatedly questioned by his peers.In contrast with the ongoing modernist and traditionalist tendencies followed by his contemporaries, Dom van der Laan developed an architectural language that was strongly driven by his Benedicine motivations. To find directions for the conception of liturgical space, he thoroughly studied the writings of Dom Guéranger and Dom Delatte and their commentaries on the old church fathers. In the 1960’s he rediscovered the writings of Maurice Blondel (1861-1949), giving a new dimension to his two manifestos De Architectonische Ruimte (Architectonic Space, 1977) and Vormenspel der Liturgie (Play of Forms 1985).Most publications on the work of Dom Hans van deer Laan focus only on his architectural work, or on his liturgical background. Nevertheless, it is only by analysing them as an intertwined entity that his work can be fully understood. This paper traces his quest for liturgical foundations, illustrating how they gave rise to a general theory of Architectonic Space. The research is based on primary source material, unpublished letters and communication, design sketches and lectures. Hereby, underlying motives and interconnections between Van der Laan’s Benedictine background and architectural theory can be revealed.In this sense, the work of Dom Hans van der Laan and his quest offer new insights towards an intense interaction between liturgy and architecture.