Hallowed books [2/3] - a photo on Flickriver

Maastricht, in the Netherlands, has a very wide range of shops. The most striking shop is by far bookstore Selexyz Dominicans. It located in a eight hundred year old church of the Dominican order. According to the British newspaper The Guardian it's the best bookstore in the world. So, of course I spared myself no trouble to pinpoint this out to you...

The 13th century Dominican church in Maastricht - one of the oldest Gothic churches in the Netherlands - is a special church, not just because of the history (the building has had many functions ranging from church, concert hall, snake exhibition, rock hall, boxing temple, bicycle shed, depot of the fire department and indoor carnaval temple), but also of the vault and the murals, which are exceptionally large art historical value.

Merkx + Girod architects were asked, after a painstaking restoration of the monument, to sign for the interior of a bookshop with 1200 m2 shopping area, while only 750 m2 floor space available. The architects looked for the solution upwards. They stressed it also fitted the architecture of the building. The architects saw themselves walk into a monumental bookcase with several storey's. The designed a unique stand alone "book flat"(like a apartment building), which they placed asymmetrical in the church. This way the full height of the church remained intact, while in other places the customers are invited to take a close look at the wonderful ceiling, besides buying books of course.

The innovative design gets a lot of appraisal. In 2007, Merkx + Girod Architects received the Lensvelt Interior design price. The shopping mall "Entre-Deux", in which selexyz Dominicans is integrated, won in the 2008 ICSC European Shopping Center Awards. The renowned British newspaper The Guardian wrote in January 2008, "the Dominican church has been turned into what could possibly be the most beautiful bookshop of all time" and "a bookshop made in heaven." (The Guardian, January 11, 2008). Possibly the best bookstore ever so, and we cordially invite you to check out to stay.

This image consists of 10 photos; hand-held. Because the 5DmrkII has an output of 26Mb+ per file, it took the computer about 10 minutes to create the basic pano. Afterwards, I had a feast with many of PS' nice features, including Transform, Liquefy, Shadows/Highlights, and Lab color.

Taken in: Nederland / Limburg / Maastricht / Wijk (show map)

Taken on: March 22, 2010

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