Masterplan+ Study of the St Godelieve Abbey Brugge

date:
juni 2022

client:
Toerisme Vlaanderen

program:
heritage, arts, gardens,

address:
Boeveriestraat 43-49 Bruge

team:
Cie-O + Sabine Okkerse, Plant & Houtgoed, Henk Pypaert engineers

  • study
  • in progress
  • built

The Godelieve Abbey is not an empty city spot, let alone a problem; Its soul is still in the bottle; the kitchen still smelling lovely, the garden with flowering linden trees, long gone abbesses still watching you closely, all evoking a unique ‘Warm & Safe House.
Such a House calls for subtle interventions and delicate adjustments rather than a tourist show-off architecture or a blunt, gentrified take-over topped with a sweet participation sauce.

The Abbey’s raison d’etre, we believe, is a place to retreat from an overheated world, where silence and individual contemplation prevail; the slowest place you can imagine amidst the daily hectic Brugge Tourist Tsunami.

We have spas and gyms for the body, but where do we put our weary spirits?