Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A Bookstore Made In Heaven



In Maastricht, a municipality located in the southernmost of the province Limburg, Netherlands. It is one of the oldest cities in the country and city filled with events & festivals throughout the year.
A church with no congregation? See what the locals did with an 800 year old Dominican church. After many many months of hardwork, the magnificent building has now a new purpose. The most beautiful bookstore of all time. A bookstore holding a wide selection of books in English which makes it different from the other bookstores around. It is said that it holds the largest stock of books in English in Maastricht. Selexyz Dominicanen's the name. ( Can't seem to find out what it means exactly ._.) But the name Selexyz indicates that the new bookstore also belongs to the same chain as Selexyz Donner in Rotterdam and Selexyz Broese in Utrecht, according to Crossroads Magazine.
Because the structure could not be altered in any way and with limited floor space, they built a double story metal structure inside the church.

- Evan -


It was always going to be a challenging task for Amsterdam based architects Merkx + Girod who designed the space, to stay true to the original character and charm of the church, whilst also achieving a desirable amount of commercial space (there was only an available floor area of 750 m2, with a proposed retail space of 1200 m2). Taking advantage of the massive ceiling, both have been achieved through the construction of a multi-storey steel structure which houses the majority of the books. This is one giant bookshelf, with stairs and elevators taking shoppers and visitors alike, up to the heavens (mind the pun), to roof of the church.

To maintain a sense of symmetrical balance in the space, lower tables of best sellers and latest releases have been added to either side, and of course a small cafe at the back for readers to relax and enjoy a hot drink. Overall a great example of how with clever thinking, spatial solutions can both achieve a suitable retail presence, whilst still respecting and remaining true to the original structure.

Architectural details and description by
Brendan Mc Knight for thecoolhunter.net

5 comments:

  1. Im gona comment on this post ALTHOUGH I DID NOT read it...cos I can hear the calling "spam evan's blog spam evan's blog" =D AHHA

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  2. Interesting post. Overall, similar to CHIJmes in Singapore. On the name, Selexyz Dominicanen is a combo of Selexyz which is a bookstore chain, like Borders or MPH. Dominicanen refers to the fact that the building used to be a Dominican Church.

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  3. Not sure how I feel about a bookstore in a consecrated space ... On one hand, it brings to mind Jesus' trashing the money changers in the temple. On the other, it looks like a cool space to browse for books in! :-)

    Great blog ... keep up the good work.

    Peace

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