Elke Schoonen
The Architecture of the Interior
Image: Is history just something we look at? In a nostalgic, appreciative way? Or can we challenge and adapt history to a different use and time and welcome it into our living environment?
Settlement Roosenberg
I was asked to use, adapt and/or extend the Roosenberg Abbey by Dom Hans van der Laan to the new purpose of a care home for people with dementia.
Working with history is a continuous argument in the story behind Settlement Roosenberg.
It challenges a building intended for a life of seclusion and contemplation. The historic reference of monastic settlements was used to propose multiple buildings that together with the abbey form an enclosed living environment. The historic and monumental value of the abbey is studied, appreciated and adapted to fit an architectural proposal with a different use and time.
Settlement Roosenberg is an architectural proposal that is not afraid to have a strong identity and a different expression than the given. An identity that has sympathy for the old and works with it, but most of all an identity that is strong enough to represent a new view on what living on the site of Roosenberg can be.