International Conference, October 7-11 2009. Religious Houses: A Legacy

Université Paris X
(France)

Fabien Bellat is Professor of Art History at Université Paris X. Dividing his time between Paris and Moscow; he has conducted research on Soviet-era Russia and its architecture, and taught the history of contemporary art at Université de Nantes. Dr. Bellat has published several articles on Soviet culture, including “Le néo-académisme en URSS : une autre architecture,” in La Revue de l’art, 2008, No. 161. His papers “Place Rouge et URSS, patrimoine et propagande” and “Du sacré en URSS. L’art soviétique et l’invention d’un culte” have been published in the Cahiers de l’Institut du patrimoine de l’UQAM.

Summary:
Amid the chaos of the fall of the USSR, places of worship were subjected to a spontaneous reconquest. The Russian state authorized this privatization of God with the collaboration of the Moscow Patriarchate. The conversion of Russia’s houses of worship is thus tied to a history circumscribed between the years 1917 and 1960, and the erasing of the sacred dimension was not without paradoxes.

The monasteries of Sergiyev Posad, the Solovki archipelago, Simonov, Novgorod and Istra were forced to drink from the bitter chalice of Soviet dithering in the face of the cumbersome Orthodox monastic heritage. The process included a semblance of tolerance, conversion to prison use, destruction in the name of propaganda, and even reconstruction with patriotic aims.

Navigating back and forth between the events of 1992 and the Soviet era reveals a singular historical phenomenon. Today, Russia wants its history to be reversible. Whereas the rest of the world is beset with the problem of dwindling populations in religious houses, Russia is experiencing the opposite process: religious reoccupation, often leading to inept restoration projects. But the Kremlin is seeking to impose its weight on that heritage, using the Orthodoxy as a political instrument.

BENSON, Virginia O.
Cleveland State University
(USA)

Dr. Virginia Benson received her Ph.D. in Geography from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. As Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Cleveland State University for 29 years, she has taught many courses in planning, urban design and historic preservation and, for 12 years, a special course in sacred landmarks. Active in inner-city and statewide projects, she has served on North Coast Harbor boards and committees doing waterfront planning and is a life trustee of the Cleveland Restoration Society. Her publications include four books and a number of articles. Dr. Benson wrote a chapter in the classic book Quel avenir pour quelles églises ? / What Future for Which Churches? Her research interests include the future of sacred landmark buildings in the Cleveland area and across the United States.

CROWTHER, Kathleen H.
Cleveland Restoration Society
(USA)

Since 1987, Kathleen H. Crowther has been Executive Director of the Cleveland Restoration Society, a regional non-government organization working to achieve historic preservation through loans, technical assistance, education and advocacy. During Ms. Crowther’s tenure, the Cleveland Restoration Society has grown dramatically into a large and influential preservation organization. The organization is particularly adept at developing partnerships that align historic preservation with economic development goals. Ms. Crowther has served in leadership capacities on the state and national levels, particularly in association with the National Trust for Historic Preservation (USA). She was selected as the first local executive director to chair the National Trust’s Statewide and Local Partners Program. She is also affiliated with the National Arts Strategies organization, which provides leadership development to arts leaders that helps them find new approaches to the toughest challenges they face. In 2007, she was tapped to participate in an exchange with French professionals in conjunction with the Courants Program of the French-American Foundation (New York, NY).

HARWOOD, Sister Rita Mary
Diocese of Cleveland
(USA)

Sister Rita Mary Harwood, S.N.D., heads the Secretariat for Parish Life and Development for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, Ohio. A significant portion of her responsibilities is in service to the parishes and all the lay organizations and ethnic ministries of the diocese. Since 1994, Sister Rita Mary has facilitated the planning and implementation of the Church in the City initiative, a pastoral statement issued by Bishop Anthony M. Pilla of the Cleveland Diocese to call attention to the impact of urban sprawl and the outmigration of peoples on the future of the Catholic Community of his diocese. As spokesperson for this initiative, Sister Mary has addressed groups locally, nationally and internationally. Most recently, she has been involved in the development of a plan for the future of the Diocese parishes, which will include the closing and merging of a significant number of parishes. Sister Mary received her MA in Educational Administration and Supervision from John Carroll University.

Summary:
In Cleveland, Ohio, it is expected that thirty to forty church campuses will be announced for closure very soon. Grappling with the extraordinary volume of properties in a city with a soft, if not depressed, real estate market, presents an incomprehensible problem—yet face it we must. For twenty years, an effective alliance has developed between the religious, academic and historic preservation communities to face the immense difficulty of redundant structures in order to respect the memory, meaning and architectural significance of religious properties. Three case studies of successful adaptive use of religious structures will be examined:

1. a for-profit arts centre utilizing the sanctuary as a gallery and rental facility, and ancillary spaces as studios and living spaces;
2. a for-profit company specializing in new product invention and design; and
3. a non-profit youth club providing safe and well-supervised after-school care.

Government Architect–Urban Planner
(France)

Born in Brittany, Jean-François Briand has practiced as an architect in Paris since obtaining his degree in 1983. Following several years in private practice, he obtained a degree from the École de Chaillot in 2006, then spent a year as an architect with the City of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, before successfully sitting the state Architect–Urban Planner examination in 2007. Since September 2008 he has been a chargé de mission at the French Ministry of Culture and Communication’s Architecture and Heritage division, where he is responsible for, among other things, the issue of heritagization of architectural production between 1940 and 1980. His main research interests include monastic architecture from the 17th to the 19th centuries, gardens and urban planning in 18th-century France, as well as Breton regional identity in the inter-war years. A Professor of Art History and custodian of the arts collections at the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (IMEC), Yves Chevrefils Desbiolles is an expert on art journals published in France during the 20th century. His recent work, proceeding from a history of art criticism perspective, focuses on artists such Jean Hélion, Christian Dotremont and André Fougeron, as well as the essayist Waldemar-George. The Abbey of Ardenne, about which he recently published a monograph, is his main place of work.

Summary:
The monastery of Saint-Nicolas de Vitré in Brittany has a long history that makes it an exemplary place of memory and a unique witness to the social and conventual life of a female religious order. The Augustines hospitalières de la miséricorde de Jésus occupied the premises from the time the monastery was built in 1655 until 1974, when crisis was averted through the sale of the institution and its division into two entities—a municipal museum in the chapel, and a rehabilitation centre in the former hospital. Saint-Nicolas retains many of its original architectural features, with the domaine relatively intact. This presentation will examine, in the light of the current legal situation as well as the uses and roles of heritage institutions and local communities, what repurposing solutions can be envisioned for this type of building.

Corporation de l’Abbaye d’Oka
(Canada)

Sylvain Camirand specializes in the psychosociology of communications, and has held various management positions. He was previously General Manager of two job-find centres, Metro Montréal and Laurentides/Lanaudière/Laval, concurrently. He was also co-ordinator of the advisory committee for workers aged 45 and older, and took part in the development and implementation of the province’s action strategy for older workers, and the associated action plan. He has also been a teacher and facilitator of workshops on various topics, including workforce management planning as well as job entry and retention of experienced workers. His keen knowledge of the job market has allowed him to develop and implement regional strategies for attracting human resources from immigrant populations to the Laval and Laurentides regions. Mr. Camirand has been General Manager of the Corporation de l’abbaye d’Oka for the past two years. 

Summary:
In August 2003, the Trappist monks at Oka, Québec, decided to give up their abbey and its outbuildings, and move to the Saint-Jean-de-Matha area. Four years later, they agreed to sell the premises to the Corporation de l’abbaye d’Oka. With the support of the Oka municipality and community, the Corporation proposed a heritage preservation project associated with a promising business plan. The latter included four development thrusts—tourism, education, arts & culture and agrifood—and won the support of the partners then using the premises. This presentation outlines how the business plan was developed, with a specific focus on the strategies put forward to ensure the financial viability of this ambitious project.

University of British Columbia
(Canada)

Geoffrey Carr is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia. His research interests include art and architecture of the 19th and 20th centuries, memorialization, and discourses of social reconciliation. He is currently writing his dissertation on the architectural history of the Indian Residential School system in British Columbia.  

Summary:
This presentation examines the current incapacity of federal policies to manage the architectural legacy of the Indian Residential School system. This national network of institutions, built to provide religious, moral, and scholarly instruction to Indigenous children, poses a particularly intractable set of problems for those official bodies charged with preserving our national memory. In particular, this presentation surveys the contemporary reuse of a number of school sites in British Columbia – for purposes as disparate as a luxury resort, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site, and a private “heritage park” – to consider to what degree, if at all, this built fabric will alter the telling of Canada’s colonial past. At present, understanding how to acknowledge the patrimony of this system and its buildings appears to be a struggle without an unequivocal resolution. Yet, I argue it is a necessary struggle if Canada is to attempt to reckon with its colonial inheritance and to better its relationship with its Indigenous peoples.

Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine
(France)

A Professor of Art History and custodian of the arts collections at the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (IMEC), Yves Chevrefils Desbiolles is an expert on art journals published in France during the 20th century. His recent work, proceeding from a history of art criticism perspective, focuses on artists such Jean Hélion, Christian Dotremont and André Fougeron, as well as the essayist Waldemar-George. The Abbey of Ardenne, about which he recently published a monograph, is his main place of work.

Summary:
In 2004, a library with room to store some 60,000 works and host 27 readers was inaugurated by the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (IMEC) in an 13th-century abbatiale (abbey-church) that had been used as a barn since the French Revolution and then completely abandoned after the Second World War. The church at the Abbey of Ardenne was not the only structure to be adapted to the needs of an institute, itself dedicated to the preservation of a heritage that documents 20th-century editorial and intellectual activity. The tithe barn, pressing shed, flour mill and the large maison de maître have also undergone profound transformations in keeping with the recommendations of a wide-ranging architectural program. How the deployment of activities related to the threefold mission of the IMEC (conservation and research, cultural dissemination, welcoming of visitors) has contributed not only to the preservation and presentation of an ancient setting, but also to “making heritage,” is the question examined in this exposé.

Vrije Universiteit Brussel
(Belgium)

Thomas Coomans is a Historian of architecture and archeology of the building, and has a Ph.D. in Art History from the Catholic University of Louvain. Successively attached to the Universities of Leiden and Leuven, he is the author of research on various aspects of religious architecture—medieval and neo-medieval—and the issue of its conversion. Coomans is also the author of numerous books and articles, in addition to having co-edited the proceedings of the conference Quel avenir pour quelles églises ? / What Future for Which Churches? (Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2006). He is Professor of Architectural History and Heritage Conservation at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and conducts seminars at the Raymond Lemaire International Center for Conservation at the University of Louvain. He is also a member of the Royal Commission on Monuments and Sites in Brussels.

Summary:
Within the age-old and apparently immutable Christian monastic tradition, architecture has helped in the adaptation of regular life to the changing needs of society (spiritual, colonizing, military, teaching, care-giving and missionary), all while promoting the assertion of strong identities specific to the various religious institutes, in an apostolic, evangelist spirit. The built environment of religious communities has evolved along with the great steps of a monastic history that is almost 2,000 years old, as well as contemplative and active, male and female, rural and urban. The architecture of abbeys and convents in Europe will be studied as a process of material and symbolic organization of space and time, submitted to monastic cloistering and the rules of life. Sometimes brutal changes in world views (the Protestant Reformation, the French Revolution, contemporary de-Christianization) have resulted in deletions and destructions, but also re-uses that are proof of the architectural potential of groups of buildings organized around cloisters.

DA SILVA, Maria Angélica
Federal University of Alagoas
(Brazil)

Maria Angélica Da Silva is an architect who holds masters and PhD degrees in Social History. She also did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Évora, Portugal, sponsored by CAPES, Brazil, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2006–07). She is a former fellow scholar at the Architectural Association School, London, sponsored by CAPES, Brazil (1996–2000). Her work has been published internationally (Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture, Cambridge; Journal of The Garden History Society, London) and she has participated in academic events in Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Chile, Australia, Japan and France. In 2007, she was the winner of an international article competition about UNESCO listed modern heritage sites, promoted by the Ibero-American Academic Council. Da Silva is a senior teacher at the Federal University of Alagoas and fellow researcher of Brazil’s National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

VASCONCELLOS, Ana Claudia
Federal University of Alagoas
(Brazil)

Ana Claudia Vasconcellos Magalhães obtained a degree in History from Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Brazil (2005) as well as a diploma (1987) and a master’s (2005) in Architecture and Urban Planning from the same institution. Ms. Vasconcellos heads the Heritage Division of the State Secretariat of Culture, and is a professor at the Fundação Educacional Jayme de Altavilla as well as an architect with the Sociedade Nossa Senhora do Bom Conselho. She is currently in charge of restoration work at the Santa Maria Madalena Convent in Marechal Deodoro, Alagoas. She is also a member of the Research Group on Landscapes at Universidade Federal de Alagoas.

Summary:
In 2009, the 800th jubilee of the official acceptance of the Franciscan Order by the Vatican is celebrated. This year also marks the 350th anniversary of the Seraphic Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene, Marechal Deodoro, Northeastern Brazil, This important Baroque monument is listed as a national heritage site and was recently restored, though it is no longer a religious habitation. This presentation will examine the implications of the secularization of the monument and explore ways of promoting reintegration of the buildings and adjoining green spaces into their urban surroundings. We will explore how a recent redevelopment proposal values not only the architectural strengths of the building but also the convent as a civic monument.

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
(Belgium)

Jan De Maeyer is Professor of Modern History at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Faculty of Arts, Modernity & Society 1800–2000 research unit) and director of KADOC, the Documentation and Research Centre for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society. His research focusses on the history of the Church and religion; history of ideologies, including ultramontanism and corporatism; history of the workers’ movement and workers’ culture; history of the aristocracy and haute bourgeoisie; and relations between religion and art. He is promoter and spokesman for the European Forum for Research on Religious Institutes in Europe (19th and 20th Century) and the Research Resource Centre and Database for the Study of 19th and 20th Century Intermediary Structures in Flanders–ODIS; President of the Belgian Historical Institute, Rome; Secretary of the Centre for Religious Art and Culture, Park Abbey Leuven–Heverlee; and a member of the editorial boards of Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique and Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte.

Summary:
In the 19th and 20th centuries, religious institutions in Belgium experienced considerable growth, participating not only in the Catholic Church’s organization of society (e.g., teaching, health care, good works, pastoral works), but also in its missionary work (beginning in the 1890s and in particular in the Belgian Congo). As early as the 1970s, these institutions were aware of the problem of declining recruitment, and began reflecting on the future of their heritage. This presentation will outline the various management itools put in place to maintain and ensure the development of the archives, libraries and movable property of religious institutions in the Flemish Community of Belgium: KADOC–Centre de documentation et de recherche : Religion, Culture, Société (an inter-faculty institute of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, founded in 1976, accredited in 1985 and subsidized by the Flemish Community); CRKC – Centre d’art et de culture religieuse (an inter-diocese structure, accredited as a centre of expertise in 2009 and subsidized by the Flemish Community); FOKAV – Forum d’archives de l’Église en Flandre; and the recently opened Musée de l’abbaye du Park (2009).

Institut du patrimoine, UQAM
(Canada)

Martin Drouin holds a PhD in Urban Studies, and is currently Coordinator of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Institut du patrimoine as well as an Associate Professor in the University’s department of Urban and Tourism Studies. There, he recently completed a post-doctoral research project, with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), on the genesis of heritage preservation in Montréal. An initial post-doctoral internship, funded by the Government of Québec’s Fonds de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC), had led him to the Université de Bretagne occidentale in Brittany, where he became interested in the religious heritage preservation movement. The author of numerous articles, he has published the book Le combat du patrimoine à Montréal (1973-2003) (PUQ, 2005) and directed the collective Patrimoine et patrimonialisation : du Québec et d’ailleurs (MultiMondes, 2006).

Summary:
The 1970s was a period of multiple demolitions that decimated the original built landscape in the province of Québec. The formation of groups and associations devoted to heritage, however, marked a turning point compared to the previous decade. There can be no doubt that these groups, by exerting pressure in the public sphere and lobbying to save certain buildings, nurtured an awareness of heritage that resonates to this day. Using examples of conservation campaigns that took place in Montréal, Québec City and Ottawa in the 1970s, this presentation will seek to highlight the role originally played by religious houses in the growth of heritage awareness in Québec.

Patri-Arch
(Canada)

The holder of a bachelor’s degree in Architecture along with a masters in History and Conservation from Université Laval, Martin Dubois has been President of the heritage and architecture consulting firm Patri-Arch since 1997. There, he directs and conducts inventory-taking, characterization studies and heritage assessments, as well as providing management tools, for cities, regional county municipalities (RCMs) and government organizations throughout Québec. Dubois is active in heritage preservation with various organizations and teaches at the Université Laval School of Architecture. He has authored several articles and publications on built heritage and contemporary architecture.

Summary:
Given the increasing pressure being felt in the convents and monasteries situated on its territory, Québec City has moved to take a proactive approach and conduct proper studies aimed at controlling these properties’ development. In 2005, it assigned the heritage consulting firm Patri-Arch the task of assessing 56 religious houses in Québec City, using a multidisciplinary approach combining history, urban planning, landscape and architecture. The aim was to properly understand the buildings’ evolution over time and their role in the community. That assessment led to guidelines that now structure the protection, presentation and potential for repurposing of buildings, and the development of the properties in question. This new instrument allows the City to “see things coming,” plan its actions over the medium and long term, and provide the religious communities with a tool for better gauging the interest and importance of their property.

ESPONDA, Mariana
Carleton University
(Canada)

Mariana Esponda is Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture & Urbanism, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She has taught as a visiting professor in Mexico (UNAM, 2003–09), Spain (Polytechnic University, 2004–08) and the United States (Brown University, 2004 and 2007; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007). She obtained her PhD in Construction, Restoration and Rehabilitation from Polytechnic University in 2004; her thesis was entitled “Assessment of Reinforced Concrete as a Structural Restoration Technique.” Since 2001, she has published articles on heritage restoration in Spain and Mexico. From 2000 to 2007, she undertook projects in Barcelona and Mexico to restore and rehabilitate historical buildings. Her research focusses on the uses, effects and preservation of reinforced concrete in modern and antique buildings, the evolution of construction techniques, as well as adaptive reuse and restoration for cultural heritage areas.

CARALT, David
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
(Spain)

David Caralt is an architect. He holds a masters degree in History and Theory of Architecture from Polytechnic University of Catalonia, UPC (2008). He studied the drawings of the Monastery of Montserrat made in 1803 by the French traveller Alexandre de Laborde, continuing the theme in his PhD thesis, and is currently preparing a book that will be published in late 2009. He won the Young Architects Prize (2008) from the Official College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC) for his article “Enric Miralles’ graffiti in the cemetery of Igualada.” He spent a year in Rome (2004) at the Roma Tre University, completing his studies in the history of architecture. Since 2005, he has worked in heritage restoration in Spain.

The Benedictine Monastery at Montserrat, in Catalonia, an important centre of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages, was destroyed in the Napoleonic Wars (1811) and abandoned due to the disentailment of the church (1835) until the middle of the 19th century, when reconstruction work began.

The transformation of the monastery’s uses became more complex with the increasing abundance of visitors, attracted not only by the symbolic value of the monastery, but also by its singular location. This motivated the early 20th century urban intervention by architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch (1925–1928), which included the construction of squares, a museum and a library. Then came economic efforts by local government to improve access to the site with a funicular and cable car. This was followed by more work, including a controversial restaurant (1976) and other, more respectful additions, which generated a rich heritage debate (Arcadi Pla, 1994–2001).

Radio-Canada
(Canada)

Jean-Robert Faucher has degrees in journalism and geography, and has been a reporter for CBC/Radio-Canada’s French television network in Québec City since 1979. After covering municipal affairs for many years, in 1999 he was assigned to a journalist-producer position with the program Second Regard, where he quickly gained acclaim for his feature reports on religious heritage.

CNRS Strasbourg
(France)

After completing a thesis in public law on the legal status of religious heritage at Université Paris XI-Sceaux in 2006, Anne Fornerod pursued post-doctoral studies for two years at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS, PRISME Laboratory) in Strasbourg. Her main research topic was the Aumônerie de l’enseignement public (system of public education chaplaincies) in France. Since then, she has continued to work for the CNRS, collaborating on projects addressing religious pluralism in Europe and the fight against various forms of religious discrimination, among others. She also conducts research into the connections between integration and secularism.

Summary:
The conversion of monastic buildings raises a twofold problem: that of their complex ownership system, which determines the management and reconciliation of the uses to which they are assigned, and that of the choice of the project partners. This paper will explore procedures that enable a community stake in the redevelopment of the building when it is based on the original or current use of the property (either when cultural uses are added to religious life, or when the religious uses have disappeared), to pinpoint how dialogue and cohabitation between religious and cultural uses are established more or less successfully. More specifically, using the examples of the Abbey of Sainte-Foy at Conques, Mont-Saint-Michel and Jumièges, among others, we will examine how religious use pervades (or is absent from) the presentation of the site’s heritage, itself modulated by the ecclesial or civil custodians.

CED Ingénierie
(France)

After initially studying science, Virginie Gilbert acquired competencies in theatre design, with a bachelor’s degree from Université Paris 8, and in management/design of cultural projects, with a masters from Université Lyon 2. While working for the Fondation du patrimoine, she realized that communities require guidance in completing heritage building redevelopment projects. She decided to specialize in this field at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers, and was hosted by Augustine community of Hôtel-Dieu in Québec City, completing a professional thesis there and helping to develop a programming methodology for the monastery’s spaces. She is currently a heritage development consultant.

Summary:
This presentation will present eight case studies from the urban space of the City of Lyon, which is a World Heritage Site. They include four buildings whose original uses revolved around social functions and organization of religious communities. Throughout our presentation, we will analyze the evolution of these buildings, which today have become flagship institutions of Lyon cultural life, and examine to what degree the heritage of their original communities has remained accessible. We will then look at four other buildings, originally monastic sites and today in transitional phases, both in terms of usage and ownership. Through the intersecting viewpoints of the people involved in deciding on these buildings’ future, we will shed light on the kinds of questions considered in their repurposing and show how those questions induce, implicitly, a particular form of closure. This presentation will conclude with some thoughts on the future of the built heritage of extant religious communities within civil society.

GRAGERT, Jeremy
University of Wisconsin
(USA)

Jeremy Gragert is a graduate student studying Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, with a graduate assistantship as Environmental Sustainability Coordinator for the institution’s student union and dining hall. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gragert graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire in 2005 with a degree in History, and founded a student newspaper there in 2003. After college, he spent over two years leading anti-poverty efforts in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, as a Volunteer In Service To America (VISTA) within the AmeriCorps national service program. He was recognized by the Governor of the State of Wisconsin for exemplary community service in 2007, and by the Sierra Club for his leadership in Eau Claire area environmental sustainability initiatives in 2008. In 2007–2008 Gragert served on the board of the community development non-profit organization Downtown Eau Claire, Incorporated.

BREWSTER, Aaron
University of Wisconsin
(USA)

Aaron Brewster is an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, majoring in Economics with a minor in Political Science. He is active in student government and the student chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as Foodlums, a local and organic food advocacy group. In November 2008, he worked nationwide as an event organizer for a national political campaign. In the community of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, he serves on the steering committee of the Third Ward Neighborhood Association and is active in local politics. Brewster is also a board member for the United Council of University of Wisconsin Students, the statewide student association, and a member of the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition.

Summary:
St. Bede Monastery and its 45-hectare (112-acre) grounds could become the future site of a living-learning community for college students and the broader community of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA. It is ideally located just five kilometres (three miles) from the city centre and the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. When founded in 1964, St. Bede was both a monastery and high school. However, the school portion closed in 1978, and it became a modest conference and retreat centre.

The 6,500-square-metre (70,000-square-foot) St. Bede Monastery and Center is currently up for sale. Our group will propose a future for St. Bede that is in keeping with the interests of the Benedictine Sisters who would continue to live there. Our group envisions a non-profit entity that would operate the monastery and create a place where people can live, work and play, and also provide a place for educational programs focussed on environmental sustainability and self-sufficiency

Institut du patrimoine, UQAM
(Canada)

Trained as an urban planner, Yona Jébrak obtained a PhD in Urban Studies from UQÀM. Her thesis topic was the urban resilience of reconstructed cities, and her thesis directors were Luc Noppen and Lucie K. Morisset. In addition to publishing several articles in urban studies, she has also co-directed, with Barbara Julien, the anthology Les temps de l’espace public urbain : construction, transformation et utilisation,published by Éditions MultiMondes in 2008.

Summary:
The history of education in Québec is intimately tied to the development of religious orders, both female and male, in particular those of the Catholic tradition. In 1964, the provincial government created the Ministry of Education, and included educational policies in a wider movement toward secularization of facilities and infrastructures. Although new schools were built, it must not be forgotten that, during this same period, the religious congregations were home to record numbers of members: more than 35,000 in the female orders, the majority of whom were dedicated essentially to teaching, and 10,000 in the male orders. The 1960 edition of Le Canada ecclésiastique listed more than 1,800 establishments, including 253 boarding schools, run by one or other of the 67 female teaching congregations.  If one adds the French-language male teaching congregations, this shows how important conventual architecture was in the province’s architectural landscape—a landscape that continually evolved, since where seminaries and boarding schools for girls (often likened to convents in everyday language) were abandoned, others were built. This presentation examines the issue of that heritage through the evolution of Québec’s convents built between the 1940s and 1960s.

École des hautes études en sciences sociales – CEIFR
(France)/
Università degli Studi di Trento
(Italie)

Isabelle Jonveaux is currently completing a PhD thesis at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales de Paris and Università degli Studi di Trento, on the comparative economics of contemporary monasteries in Europe. She is part of the research group Modernité et Catholicisme of the Centre Interdisciplinaire des Faits Religieux, and is a regular contributor to the bibliographical newsletter of the Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions. She has published a study on an online Lenten retreat, revealing the new practices afforded by this medium, as well as an article on monks’ use of the Internet and the possible challenge this “out of the worldliness” may cause.

Summary:
While some religious sites are falling into disrepair, it would seem that, thanks to interactions between new propositions by monks and the new demands of secularized society, the monastic world can become a site for entirely redefined practices. New audiences, who are not necessarily devout, are knocking at its doors in search of a common, original heritage. Thus monasteries are serving to illustrate the heritagization of religion by becoming, for a specific audience, no longer sites devoted strictly to traditional religious observances, but richly testimonial locales that safeguard traditions, which are so important in our society marked by change. How, then, does the practice of religion in these sites coexist with their new uses, especially when the monks living there themselves become heritage elements? Can the challenges experienced and illustrated by this “living” heritage be instructive with respect to the future of abandoned sites?

Univers culturel de Saint-Sulpice/Comité des archives du Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Québec
(Canada)

Marc Lacasse has a masters degree in Library and Information Sciences, Archive Science option (1994) from Université de Montréal. From 1989 to 1997, he worked in documents and archives management for private- and public-sector organizations in the fields of law, teaching, the arts, labour unions, real estate management and public transit. In 1997, he became the first lay archivist at the archives of the Sulpician Priests in Montréal. He is currently Coordinator of the Archival Department of the Univers culturel de Saint-Sulpice, pursuing a lasting commitment to archival associations, including in the ecclesiastical realm.

Summary:
The predominant role played by religious communities and the Catholic Church in the emergence of Québec society from the 17th century onward, and their role until the present day in the development of health and educational services, culture and society in general, are a source of great wealth for the archive scientist. Preservation of this religious archival heritage, which provides us with signposts in time, poses both an individual and a collective challenge.

Faced with the accelerated pace of change in our societies, such markers bequeathed by prior generations function as time capsules that can be opened periodically; exploring their contents can support contemporary actions that best enable us to meet present and future challenges.

Conseil du patrimoine de Montréal
(Canada)

Marie Lessard is an Urban Planner and a Professor at the Institute of Urban Planning of the Université de Montréal Faculty of Environmental Design. Her current teaching and research interests are urban design and projects as well as the management of built heritage. Since 1991, she has taught as well as conducted research projects in Latin America, principally in Puebla, Mexico, as a member of the Montréal Interuniversity Group – Urbanization and Development. In Québec, she has been actively involved in various committees and organizations tasked with the evaluation of architectural and urban planning projects. Since September 2007 she has divided her time between university activities and her role as President of the Conseil du patrimoine de Montréal, the city administration’s heritage consulting body.

Summary:
While grande propriété institutionnelle (“major institutional facility”) and couvent, monastère ou lieu de culte (“convent, monastery or place of worship”) are formal land use designations in the Montréal Master Plan, the use of religious houses is not protected against all possible changes, although conversion may not be foreseen or designed by current urban planning tools. This paper will discuss the interest and limitations of using urban planning tools and democratic instruments (public consultations, referendums), in relation with the scales of heritage action and control, for the preservation and presentation of these buildings’ built and natural heritage, as well as for the consideration of “spirit of place.” This will be studied specifically in light of the process of evaluation and supervision of two recent Montréal projects for conversion to high-end residential use of the Mother House of the Sœurs des Saints-Noms-de-Jésus-et-Marie and the former Sulpician Philosophy Seminary.

Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Conseil national de la culture et des arts)
(Mexico)

Ana Lozano is an art historian. She graduated with honours from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where she sat as a member of the Council Board. Her education includes the foundations of architecture and a masters degree in Cultural Communication from Universidad de Barcelona. She is the co-author of a book about vision and art, and participated as a lecturer at the second National Congress of Architectural Theory at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; her presentation was on religious architecture of the 20th century. Her professional experience also includes contribution to the Heritage Conservation Division of an urban development plan, a position as a researcher in the Curatorial Department of the Franz Mayer Museum, and work at Mexican National Council for Culture and Arts, in the division tasked with restoration and conservation of federally owned monuments with artistic and historic value in the country, mainly religious buildings.

Summary:
After Mexican Independence, the liberal government nationalized Church properties in 1859, since they owned most of the territorial wealth in the country.

Irreparable damages were caused, but these historic circumstances also led to many successful adaptations, such as the Franz Mayer Museum, housed in a former religious hospital dating from 1582 and now considered an oasis in the middle of the city, and the Government Palace in Morelia, originally a seminary. Other examples are the Jesuit seminary of San Ildefonso, later a school where many famous personalities were educated, and now a museum; the Lerdo de Tejada Library, previously a church and now surrounded by 2,000 square metres of murals depicting socialist ideals; and the Bankers Association building, which proudly merges respect for the former Colegio de Niñas with an example of contemporary Mexican architecture. Finally, the Santa Catalina de Siena Convent in Oaxaca is worthy of mention since, after many different uses, it is now an elegant and beautifully adapted hotel.

INRS-Urbanisation, Culture et Société
(Canada)

Pierre Lucier holds the Fernand-Dumont Chair on Culture at INRS – Urbanisation, Culture et Société, where his principal areas of research are culture, religion and society. He obtained a French state doctorate from Université des Sciences humaines at Strasbourg; his thesis topic was logical empiricism. He was previously a professor at Université de Montréal, then an administrator for the Government of Québec, including terms as Deputy Minister of Education, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Science, President of the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation and President of the Conseil des universités. From 1996 to 2003, he was president of Université du Québec.

Summary:
Religious and spiritual traditions have been expressed in habitats and places of worship or hospitality that are often quite different, in the image of the specific urgings of varying beliefs and rules of life. There are correspondences among the spiritual leanings of religious families, the architectural planning of their convents, monasteries and other buildings, and the modes of their presence and action that have a lot to do with the spirit of place found in the buildings. It is that spirit of place that lays the foundation for the cultural significance of religious houses and can provide benchmarks for civil repurposing that is liable to comply with and extend their symbolic potential.

Using selected examples from the rules and constitutions of religious orders and how they are translated into habitats and sites, this presentation will attempt to pinpoint and illustrate some of those promising homologies.

MARTIN, Tania
Université Laval
(Canada)

Tania Martin is Professor at the Université Laval School of Architecture, and has held the Canada Research Chair in Built Religious Heritage since 2005. She specializes in the history of architecture, vernacular architecture and North American worship structures. After completing her bachelor’s degree in architecture at the University of Toronto, she obtained a masters in architecture from McGill University. Her research topic, which merged the history of architecture with social history, was the Mother House of the Grey Nuns in Montréal, shed light on the close relationship between the spatial organization of the convent, the rules of community life and the nature of the nuns’ works. That research laid the groundwork for her PhD dissertation at UC Berkeley, which examined the development of networks of Catholic religious communities throughout Canada and the United States. Tania Martin is an appointed member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, and is also affiliated with several professional associations.

DUFAUX, François
Université Laval
(Canada)

François Dufaux holds a bachelor’s degree from the Université Laval School of Architecture and a masters in Urban Planning from McGill University.  In 2007, he completed a PhD in Architecture at University College London , under the direction of Prof. Julienne Hanson of the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies. His thesis, on the origins of Montréal’s tenement housing tradition, won the Phyllis Lambert Prize of the Institut du patrimoine (UQAM), in 2008. His teaching at Université Laval examines questions related to the future of religious heritage through five masters program workshops established since 2004. These exercises in study/creation with students have addressed a variety of challenges inherent in the rehabilitation of religious architecture. From 2006 to 2008, Dufaux led a small group of students in the study and architectural analysis of the Hôtel-Dieu monastery in Québec City, which laid the foundations for an integrated understanding of built heritage.

Summary:
The case of the Pères de l’Assomption monastery in Sillery, Québec, affords opportunities to study the intersections between architectural considerations (built and landscaped heritage), social objectives (the accommodation of a range of households of diverse sizes, compositions and resources), and financial consequences (the profitability of the operation and its fiscal impact on the municipality).

(Canada)

Paul Montminy is a development consultant for non-profit organizations, working almost exclusively with groups in the fields of education, culture and community affairs. His main areas of interest are funding of non-profit organizations, management of volunteer human resources, leadership of boards of directors, creation and development of foundations, socially responsible investment, social innovation, and organizational strategy. In 2007 he published the book La Fondatique, l’art et la science du financement des associations (Trois-Rivières: Éditions du ROPPH-Mauricie). He has been a volunteer for many non-profit organizations for some forty years. In 1991 he was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques by France’s Ministry of National Education. Paul Montminy recently designed the three-phase organizational structure that will be responsible for ensuring the future of the Lieu de Mémoire des Augustines.

Summary:
In the territory of Québec alone, the built heritage that will be bequeathed, in one way or another, to civil society by the Catholic Church in the decades to come will have a truly phenomenal economic value. Who can take over these properties, be they modest or opulent? Governments? Rarely. The private sector? Occasionally. In fact, the real solution will come from the not-for-profit sector.

This presentation will examine different models of associative ownership, existing or yet to be devised. Alternatives such as the social investment trust, the co-operatives, the emphyteutic lease and the servitude will be covered, as well as the classic structure of not-for-profit organizations. The respective relevance of these different tools will be analyzed according to their potential for adaptability to circumstances and their capacity to facilitate citizen engagement and the heritagization of the properties to be bestowed.

Radboud University Nijmegen
(The Netherlands)

Dr. Nico Nelissen was born in 1942 in Maastricht, The Netherlands. He studied Social Sciences at Tilburg University; his doctoral dissertation was entitled “Social Ecology” (1970). He was later a professor at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, first in Urban Sociology and later in Public Administration. He has written some fifty scientific books on urban sociology, environmental problems, public administration, urban planning, architecture, monument care, aesthetic control, re-use of monuments, and so on. He is also the author of more than 500 articles in national and international scientific journals, and is considered an outstanding scholar in these fields. Dr. Nelissen has received several awards for his research activities, has been an advisor to several departments of the Dutch government, and has conducted several research activities for European institutions. He is president of several Dutch organizations in the field of monument care and aesthetic control.

Summary:
The Netherlands declared 2008 as the “Year of Religious Heritage.” A task force developed, with the support of Dutch government, a strategic plan for the protection and careful re-utilization of religious heritage in general. Built religious heritage implies not only churches, chapels, synagogues and mosques, but also religious houses (convents). Once, The Netherlands had hundreds of convents. Today, only 170 retain their religious function, and it is expected that some 150 of them will lose that function over the next ten years. The task for the future is to find new (or additional) functions for the religious houses, but not all functions are appropriate. There is a need for re-utilization that shows respect for cultural heritage on the one hand, and for the sacred nature of the convents on the other. A typology of strategies will be presented, and an example provided for each strategy.

Ladybird Communications
(Canada)

Born in France, Sophie Oliveau-Moore studied in Paris, where she graduated from École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs (ENSAD). A resident of British Columbia since 1984, and keenly interested in the history of the French presence in that province, she has conducted a research study on French-speaking Victoria’s past for the Association historique francophone de Victoria, and written an article on that city’s St. Ann's Academy for the Encyclopédie du patrimoine culturel de l’Amérique française (Encyclopedia of French North America’s Cultural Heritage). Ms. Oliveau-Moore sits on the boards of directors of the Friends of St. Ann’s Academy and the Société francophone de Victoria, and runs her own company, Ladybird Communications, where she works as a graphic designer and French-English translator.

Summary:
Located in the heart of Victoria, capital of British Columbia, St. Ann’s Academy was for a century the mother house of the Sœurs de Sainte-Anne (Sisters of St. Ann) on Canada’s West Coast. Missionary nuns from the congregation, founded in Québec, played a crucial role in the history of B.C. health and education. Built over a 30-year period, built according to plans that echoed the classic, majestic style of Québec’s convents, the Academy was home to a girls’ school, a convent and a novitiate. In the early 1970s, financial and social upheavals forced the congregation to sell the building to the provincial government—with one express condition: that they build an interpretation centre dedicated to the memory of the nuns’ accomplishments in British Columbia. Thanks to a unique, fortuitous combination of circumstances—but also skilful negotiation on the part of the congregation—St. Ann’s Academy today provides Victoria’s inhabitants with a tangible reminder of their history, and of the presence of the Sisters of St. Ann in B.C.

PÉNEAU, Jean-Pierre
Centre de recherche méthodologique d’architecture
(France)

Jean-Pierre Péneau is an architect, Professor of History of Science and Technology, Honorary Professor of France’s Schools of Architecture and a full member of the Académie d’Architecture. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Carthage in Tunisia. His work has focused on the theory of architectural ambiances, as well as on the relationships between architectural theory and climate. Notable publications include “Villes, ambiances et références du projet” in Les cahiers de la recherche architecturale, nos. 42–43, 1998, “Les ambiances urbaines” in M.F. Mattéi and D. Pumain, Données urbaines 3 (Paris: Anthropos, 2000), and Sens, sensible aux premiers temps de Clairvaux (Bernin: Editions A la Croisée, 2007).

LEROUX, Jean-François
Centre de recherche méthodologique  d’architecture
(France)

For many years, Jean-François Leroux-Dhuys was both a project manager for a major French banking group and a journalist. He is Curator and the Founder of the Écomusée du Cristal de Bayel (Manufactures royales de Champagne), and an elected member of both the International Association of Art Critics and the Académie d’Architecture. He became interested in the Abbey of Clairvaux in 1955, eventually becoming President of the Association Renaissance de l’abbaye de Clairvaux. He is President of the European Charter of Abbeys and Cistercian Sites as well as Honorary Mayor of the city of Bar-sur-Aube.

JOANNE, Pascal
Centre de recherche méthodologique  d’architecture
(France)

Pascal Joanne, an architect by training, is Professor of Engineering Science and a teacher-researcher at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Nantes, where he heads Cerma, the Architectural and Urban Ambient Environment Laboratory of the Unité Mixte de Recherche CNRS ambiances architecturales et urbaines. His work focuses on characterization and reconstitution of conditions of comfort in notable buildings and sites, more specifically medieval Cistercian architecture. He is the co-author of “Ambiances et références du projet” in Ambiances architecturales et urbaines, 1998, nos. 42–43, pp. 25–35, Ed. Parenthèses (Les Cahiers de la Recherche Architecturale).

Summary:
In the early 19th century, the prestigious Cistercian Abbey at Clairvaux was converted into France’s largest penal facility: the prison occupied the 18th-century buildings as well as the oldest constructions, dating from the 12th century. A new central block for long-term detainees was built on the site in 1970; the oldest buildings are currently in the process of restoration and repurposing. Ongoing tours and guided activities attract thousands of visitors. A study and conference centre dedicated to the question of confinement is in the planning stages.

Archdiocese of Newark and Drew University, NJ
(USA)

Denis Robitaille is Project Manager for the Lieu de mémoire habité des Augustines in Old Québec City. He has contributed to various religious heritage conservation and presentation activities, including in Portneuf, near Québec City. He is the author of L’âme d’un lieu (2004), a guide to the meaning and uses of heritage in parish churches.

Summary:
The Augustines were the founders of the Americas’ first hospital north of Mexico, Hôtel-Dieu in Québec City, as well as 11 other monastery-hospitals over the centuries. Faced with aging and decreasing memberships, they have decided to group their cultural heritage (archives and collections) in the original monastery and make it available for public use.

In this “place of memory,” visitors will experience a special type of contact with the living space of a caregiver community, with the period décor and atmosphere preserved. This experience will be provided not only by a tour of the monastery, museum and archives, but the opportunity to stay overnight on the premises. In addition, contemporary health-care personnel will find it an inspiring place of respite and retreat. This new use of the space will ensure that its mission continues, while providing an exceptional mode of presentation.

SIMMONS, Troy Joseph
Archdiocese of Newark and Drew University, NJ
(USA)

For the past four years, Troy Joseph Simmons has served in the dual position of Architectural Historian and Director of Patrimony to the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. Though similar positions exist in other countries, Simmons is the first individual to hold such a position for the American Roman Catholic Church. In addition, he currently serves as an Associate Director of Development for the Archdiocese of Newark and teaches in the Historic Preservation Program at Drew University. He is a Fellow of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture & Historic Preservation, and also holds a Masters in History from Seton Hall University. Simmons is the co-author of Guidelines Concerning the Handling of Ecclesiastical Patrimony, a document that instructs pastors and administrators in the proper handling of art and artifacts that are of historical value to the Archdiocese. In 2006, he was curator to Form, Function & Faith, an exhibition held at Seton Hall University.

WISTER, MGR Robert
Archdiocese of Newark and Seton Hall University, NJ
(USA)

Monsignor Robert J. Wister, a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Church History at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology and Faculty Fellow of the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, both at Seton Hall University. After theological studies at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, he obtained a Master of Sacred Theology degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He later obtained the Doctorate in Ecclesiastical History summa cum laude from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. At Seton Hall University, he teaches numerous courses on the History of the Roman catholic Church. Mgr. Wister is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Seton Hall University, chair of the Newark Archdiocesan Commission for the Ecclesiastical Patrimony and chair of the Theological Faculty of the Pastoral Provision.

Summary:
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Jersey consists of more than 1400 properties and is the largest landowner in the most densely populated state of the U.S. The Commission for Ecclesiastical Patrimony exists to protect the three-dimensional heritage of the Archdiocese. Since its creation in 2004, it has served as curator to the artistic and historical objects that are an important part of the Roman Catholic diaspora of Northern and Central New Jersey. For the past five years, the Archdiocese has worked toward providing not only post-trauma solutions but also preventative care in its handling of the closing of its parishes or religious institutions.

This presentation will outline the Archdiocese’s work in addressing such issues as ownership, use and memory through a presentation of its work over the past five years. Examples and case studies illustrating the Archdiocese’s experience with adaptive reuse, the historic preservation of closed facilities, the recycling of historical architectural implements and the lessons learned from past mistakes will be provided.

Université de Brest
(France)

Born in 1950, Yvon Tranvouez holds a PhD in history, is accredited as a Research Director, and is Professor of Contemporary History at Université de Brest, France, as well as Associate Director of the Centre de recherche bretonne et celtique (CRBC). He is an expert on contemporary French Catholicism, and has devoted the bulk of his research to the 20th-century changes that affected the Church, with a particular attention paid to various scales of observation and a specific interest in two fields: leftist Christian activism on the one hand, and Breton Christianity on the other. His current work examines the crisis and recomposition of Catholicism in France since the 1960s, notably through studies of the heritagization of religion.

Summary:
A victim, like many others, of the French Revolution, the ruined Abbey at Landévennec was symbolically reappropriated between the wars by the Breton nationalist movement, which made it the heart of historic Brittany. The monks eventually returned in 1950, built a new monastery nearby, and decided to leave the ruins as they were. The celebration of the abbey’s 1500th anniversary in 1985 led to heritage preservation efforts: archeological digs, tours and a museum. This paper will examine that history and shed light on the problems caused today by this curious cohabitation of the religious and cultural spheres: death, of sorts, remains under the control of the living (the abbot retains a veto on the museum’s management board), but the living are threatened with death anew, this time because of a fading calling: there are only 20 or so monks left in the new monastery.

TURGEON, Laurier
Canada Research Chair on Ethnological Heritage, Université Laval
(Canada)

Laurier Turgeon holds a Canada Research Chair in Cultural Heritage and is Professor of History and Ethnology at Université Laval, Québec City, and Director of its Institute for Cultural Heritage. He has held fellowships and visiting professorships from Harvard University (2006), the Université de Paris I-Sorbonne (2004), the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University (2000–2001), the Newberry Library in Chicago (1998–1999), the Bineicke Library at Yale University (1998), the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris (1996) and the University of Bucharest (1995). He has published ten books and collections of essays, and more than 60 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. His book Patrimoines métissés : Contextes Coloniaux et Postcoloniaux (Paris and Québec City: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme and Presses de l’Université de Laval, 2003) was awarded the Luc Lacourcière Prize in 2004 for the best book published on the history and ethnology of French North America. His most recent book, published with Octave Debary, Objets et mémoires (Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2003) deals with the ways material objects construct memory and, likewise, with the manners in which memory constructs objects.

SAINT-PIERRE, Louise
Canada Research Chair on Ethnological Heritage, Université Laval
(Canada)

Louise Saint-Pierre holds a masters in Ethnology from Université Laval. A research professional, she is currently Coordinator of Québec Intangible Religious Heritage Inventory with the Canada Research Chair on Ethnological Heritage at Université Laval, and also works as a consultant to the Québec Ministry of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women. Jointly with Dr. Laurier Turgeon, Ms. Saint-Pierre recently authored the chapter “Prolégomènes à une base de données multimédia du patrimoine religieux immatériel du Québec : conserver pour communiquer” in Lefebvre, Solange (dir.), Le patrimoine religieux du Québec : Éducation et transmission du sens ? (Québec City: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2009, pp. 85–106).

Summary:
This presentation aims to present the initial results of a three-year project (2009–2012) dedicated to the preservation and presentation of the oral history of Québec’s religious communities. This oral memory of daily life is vital to achieving an understanding of social uses of elements less well documented in writing—e.g., gardens, certain rooms in monasteries, furniture, objects, and practices, both worship-related (initiation rites, celebrations, feast days) and cultural (crafts, cooking, chants, music). In a bid to preserve that oral history, we have devised a methodology for ethnological inquiry that involves the gathering of four types of narratives—about place, objects, practices and living—using writing (a summary on an electronic file), sound (recorded interviews) and pictures (audiovisual recording of practices). The electronic files are stored in a multimedia database, accessible via a website, representing a significant corpus of previously unpublished data for students and teachers, as well as architects and museum specialists, to mine.

VAN BALEN, Koenraad
Raymond Lemaire International Conservation Centre, K.U. Leuven
(Belgium)

Koenraad Van Balen graduated as an Engineer Architect from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1979, obtained a post-graduate degree in Architectural Conservation in 1984, and a PhD in Engineering in 1991, from the same institution.

He is Director of the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation, and Professor of Civil Engineering at University of Leuven. Van Balen recently became the holder of the UNESCO Chair on Preventive Conservation, Monitoring and Maintenance of Monuments and Sites. He is a member of different international organizations dealing with building lime, heritage preservation and technical issues of architectural preservation and renovation, and is also a member of Monumentenwacht. He is or has been an advisor to, amongst others, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and the Getty Foundation.

VERPOEST, Luc
Raymond Lemaire International Conservation Centre, K.U. Leuven
(Belgium)

Luc Verpoest is a professor at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, where he graduated as a Civil Engineer Architect in 1969 and obtained a PhD in Applied Sciences in 1984. Before his academic career, he worked in architectural practice and as a consultant at the Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale, Kinshasa, Zaire. Since 1984 he has been a professor at K.U. Leuven, of Architectural History (19th and 20th Centuries) as well as History and Theory of Conservation, in the Department of Architecture, Urban Design and Planning (Faculty of Engineering Sciences) and the Department of Archaeology, Art History and Musicology (Faculty of Arts); he was an assistant professor from 1969 to 1984. He also teaches in the MAHS (Master of Human Settlements) Program and at the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation (both attached to the Faculty of Engineering Sciences), as well as the European Studies Program (Faculty of Arts). He is a member of the Royal Commission of Monuments and Sites (Flanders/Belgium), Chairman of Monumentenwacht Vlaanderen (Monuments Watch Flanders), and a member of both DOCOMOMO International and ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites).

Summary:
On the corner of the Croylaan and the Celestijnenlaan in Heverlee (Leuven, Belgium) stands a red wall. Hidden behind the wall is an introverted building, which does not immediately reveal its past. Nevertheless, it has an extremely prestigious history: the Monastery of the Order of the Celestines, unique in The Netherlands, with a founder who was a politician of European stature: William of Croy, Counsellor to Philip the Fair and Charles V.

With the French Revolution, the Priory changed function; it was partially destroyed and dismantled. In the last decades of the 20th century the complex hosted various functions for the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, until in 2003 it was restored and converted into the Campus Library Arenberg. The proposal by architect José Rafael Moneo was chosen after an international competition.

This presentation is based on documents related to the competition as well as on previous studies carried out at the Raymond Lemaire International Conservation Centre on the conversion of the Celestine Priory to a university library.

Les ateliers de Louvranges
(Belgium)

Hubert Van Ruymbeke is a director and producer, and head of the association Les ateliers de Louvranges. He has directed and produced more than 100 films in nearly 50 countries on five continents. For the past 30 years, he has been involved in the restoration and building of several sites for cultural, social and spiritual uses. His current project is the repurposing of the Marche-Les-Dames Abbey in Namur, Belgium.

Martin, Tania
Université Laval
(Canada)

Tania Martin is Professor at the Université Laval School of Architecture, and has held the Canada Research Chair in Built Religious Heritage since 2005. She specializes in the history of architecture, vernacular architecture and North American worship structures. After completing her bachelor’s degree in architecture at the University of Toronto, she obtained a masters in architecture from McGill University. Her research topic, which merged the history of architecture with social history, was the Mother House of the Grey Nuns in Montréal, shed light on the close relationship between the spatial organization of the convent, the rules of community life and the nature of the nuns’ works. That research laid the groundwork for her PhD dissertation at UC Berkeley, which examined the development of networks of Catholic religious communities throughout Canada and the United States. Tania Martin is an appointed member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, and is also affiliated with several professional associations.

DUFAUX, François
Université Laval
(Canada)

François Dufaux holds a bachelor’s degree from the Université Laval School of Architecture and a masters in Urban Planning from McGill University.  In 2007, he completed a PhD in Architecture at University College London , under the direction of Prof. Julienne Hanson of the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies. His thesis, on the origins of Montréal’s tenement housing tradition, won the Phyllis Lambert Prize of the Institut du patrimoine (UQAM), in 2008. His teaching at Université Laval examines questions related to the future of religious heritage through five masters program workshops established since 2004. These exercises in study/creation with students have addressed a variety of challenges inherent in the rehabilitation of religious architecture. From 2006 to 2008, Dufaux led a small group of students in the study and architectural analysis of the Hôtel-Dieu monastery in Québec City, which laid the foundations for an integrated understanding of built heritage.

Summary:
Since 2004, six workshops that are part of the School’s masters program in built heritage addressed the issues related to the repurposing, restoration and restructuring of churches, convents, monasteries and other religious buildings in Québec City. Their historical and architectural research confirms the permanence of the types and principles of composition and growth pertaining to these institutions, now abandoned or little-used. These religious houses’ location in a particular urban context, however, has a considerable influence on the progammatic aspects of repurposing scenarios.

DUFAUX, François
Université Laval
(Canada)

François Dufaux holds a bachelor’s degree from the Université Laval School of Architecture and a masters in Urban Planning from McGill University.  In 2007, he completed a PhD in Architecture at University College London , under the direction of Prof. Julienne Hanson of the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies. His thesis, on the origins of Montréal’s tenement housing tradition, won the Phyllis Lambert Prize of the Institut du patrimoine (UQAM), in 2008. His teaching at Université Laval examines questions related to the future of religious heritage through five masters program workshops established since 2004. These exercises in study/creation with students have addressed a variety of challenges inherent in the rehabilitation of religious architecture. From 2006 to 2008, Dufaux led a small group of students in the study and architectural analysis of the Hôtel-Dieu monastery in Québec City, which laid the foundations for an integrated understanding of built heritage.

LACHANCE, Mathieu
Université Laval
(Canada)

Matthieu Lachance has been pursuing an internship in architecture since 2007, when he completed his masters degree at the Université Laval School of Architecture. In 2006 and 2007, he was a member of the team conducting research on the Hôtel-Dieu monastery in Québec City. His interests lie in the sustainability of built heritage and the unfortunate, multiple constraints that hamper repurposing efforts.

Summary:
The Augustine Monastery of Hôtel-Dieu in Québec City, founded in 1639, remains one of North America’s oldest institutions. Since its foundation, buildings have been progressively enlarged, renovated, converted, demolished and rebuilt in response to the needs and aspirations of successive periods. Today, Hôtel-Dieu faces contrasting futures: the monastery faces gradual abandonment by the Augustine community, while the hospital administration is planning a major expansion.

During the summer months from 2006 to 2008, a small team of three students conducted a study and an architectural analysis of the site. Our detailed research, ranging from the site’s placement in the urban grid to components of the interior decor, provides persuasive evidence for the architectural importance of the whole, but also for the limitations of an approach grounded in general historical authenticity. The transformations on the site also show that the initial intentions remain subjacent, and can potentially re-establish the architectural logic interrupted by the addition of the twelve-storey tower in 1957.