Author:

Keywords:

modern architecture, religious communities, Groupe Structures, Arts & Humanities, Architecture, Religion

Abstract:

The Institut des Dames de Berlaymont is one of the oldest and most prestigious boarding schools in Brussels, originally attracting girls from the noble and higher classes. During its 400–year history, the school relocated no less than four times to the then urban outskirts. The most recent transfer occurred in 1962, when the community moved into a vast new campus in Waterloo. This paper proposes to discuss this (so far) last relocation of the Berlaymont institute as it happened at a moment when fundamental changes occurred within the field of education, religion and architectural culture in Belgium. More specifically, the paper assesses the move to Waterloo and the design of the new premises in the perspective of the nuns’ strategy to secure the position of their institute within the rapidly changing social and cultural climate in Brussels in the aftermath of the 1958 World Fair.