Rafael Moneo, Celestine Convent, Arenberg Campus Library, Heverlee near Leuven, 1521 ff./2000-2002, detail
Photograph: Rob Dettingmeijer

The EAHN committee at the juncture between old and new in the Arenberg Campus Library
Photograph: Reto Geiser

Rafael Moneo, Arenberg Campus Library, Heverlee near Leuven, 2000-2002, entrance
Photograph: Rob Dettingmeijer

Rafael Moneo, Celestine Convent / Arenberg Campus Library, Heverlee near Leuven, 1521 ff. / 2000-2002, detail of convent wall inside library
Photograph: Reto Geiser

Rafael Moneo’s Arenberg Campus Library, Catholic University, Leuven

Competition: January 1997
Construction: 2000-2002

During the EAHN business meeting in Leuven on 9 February, the committee members took a refreshing break to visit the recently rebuilt Celestine Convent adjacent to Arenberg Castle where our meetings were held. Professor Krista De Jonge, chair of the Architectural History and Conservation department, guided the walking tour to the library and gave us a well-informed and detailed account of its genesis, since she was deeply involved in the design process. The Celestine Convent in Heverlee near Leuven was founded by Willem de Croy in his will of 1521; the convent was to serve as burial place for him and his family, and the resident monks were to pray for the founder’s soul. The convent was suppressed in 1783, and its church demolished in 1816. The remaining convent buildings stand under the protection of the historic preservation authorities. In transforming the convent into a modern campus library, Moneo was limited on practically all sides by existing walls and buildings. Furthermore, Moneo operated extremely cautiously in order not to dominate the already humble remnants of the convent. Therefore his interventions hardly show from the outside. His interior is also quiet and sober; walls, ceilings and floors are smoothly covered with light materials in order to give room to the richer detailing of the existing
convent spaces, especially its three remaining vaulted and glazed arcades that surround the central cloister court, and the enormous reading room. Ingenious details thoughout provide modern comfort, such as the narrow voids along the edges of the big book storage floors and the skylights that provide subtle awareness of the outside climate in these low underground spaces.

Moneo’s pièce de résistance is certainly the volume along the fourth, west side of the cloister court, containing the entrance hall, reception desk, cafeteria and reading rooms. Only after entering the new outdoor space between the convent and the park-like surroundings is one faced with this virtuoso play of white cubes and free volumes that cheerfully counterbalances the roughness of the pre-existing buildings. The architect scrupulously designed the volumes in such a way that the right-angled, protruding ground floor could provide room for the necessary functional requirements while the free curves of the upper floor follow their own path, thereby also respecting the the extant courtyard wings. The new building celebrates the old identity of the convent as well as the new identity of the (very) modern library; in so doing, it also celebrates the modern plurality which can be the ultimate outcome of successful rebuilding.

Karin Theunissen, Technische Universiteit Delft