Reuse of Churches in Urban and Rural Dutch Landscapes

European churches are confronted with the challenge of finding new uses for their church buildings. Due to a lack of members and income, the maintenance of their buildings cannot be ensured in the future; therefore, new applications and users are to be found. This task poses a considerable challenge, especially in a to a certain extent provincial and conservative country like the Netherlands, where people, even irreligious ones, perceive the church as a building that belongs to them. Besides having to deal with the building in an architectural way, there is a wide range of possibilities for reusing it; for example, community-based or mixed uses, commercial or residential ones. The eventual solution is mainly based on the church’s building type, the influence of the neighborhood, the owner’s financial possibilities, and the location. One of the present study’s main results suggests that uses which serve the community are more likely to be found in rural areas, consequently reflecting the importance of those buildings there.