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2020 - Kerselare Chapel

Project Type

Photo Essay

Date

January, 2020

Location

Oudenaarde, Belgium

Architect

Juliaan Lampens

Sorting through old photos recently, I found a series from autumn 2019 of a modest Belgian chapel—the Kerselare Chapel, just west of Ghent. Designed by the little-known architect Juliaan Lampens, it reflects his deeply rooted connection to East Flanders, a land intertwined with water, which became a central motif in his designs.

In his few works, functional drainage becomes poetic, drawing the eye and slowing the visitor’s step. At Kerselare, Lampens designed a lotus pond to collect rainwater from the chapel’s dramatic sloped roof—a quiet moment of contemplation. In autumn, however, the pool lay dry, its intended scene absent.

Lampens, captivated by Belgium’s coastal seawalls, brought this rugged coastal resilience into his concrete structures, creating spaces that feel vast and weathered. The chapel, originally built without columns, is testament to this vision. Yet when I visited, temporary yellow steel supports stood in place—unbeknownst to me, Lampens had passed away just three days prior. His chapel, standing alone for decades, now leans on these supports, a quiet nod to the architect’s enduring struggle with gravity and time.

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