Ingeborg Meulendijks
Zorg Compas

Three principles
In designing the space, Ingeborg Meulendijks had an ideal in mind. Because there is little room for reflection in our society, she wanted to literally and figuratively create space for silence and contemplation in the middle of a bustling nursing home in multicultural Delfshaven. For the design and choice of materials she based herself on three principles: soberness, natural beauty and inherent structure. For Meulendijks, soberness stands for quietness, modesty and an absence of stimuli. Natural beauty stands for the use of recognisable forms and materials that represent natural elements and bear signs of growth. life and timelessness. Use is made, for example, of wood (bamboo), stone, metal and water. The principle of keeping the inherent structure intact is visible, for example, in the traces of chasing in the solid silver of the liturgical objects, the wooden joints of the furniture and in the parquet floor in which bamboo knots are visible.

Intervening in the existing architecture
Since a sacred space is first and foremost a space where beauty predominates, it was necessary to intervene in the existing architecture. Next to the entrance Meulendijks had a niche built, which serves as a vestibule or transit space, like the narthex of a church, marking the transition from activity to silence. A spring with gently flowing water drowns out environmental noise. Access is provided to the ritual washing space, where a granite wash basin and a mosaic of pebbles refers to Islamic customs. The point where the tiled floor crosses over to the bamboo wooden floor is marked by a granite threshold in which the word ‘open’ has been chiselled.
Universal elements
Ingeborg Meulendijk’s design for the space emphasises universal forms that are common to different cultures and traditions. One of the important and recurring motifs is the circle and the dome as a symbol of the spirit. Dome-shaped cutaways are incorporated in the ceiling, referring to the mandala and celestial bodies. In the wooden floor a circle has been inlaid, serving as a compass card indicating magnetic North and the position of Mecca.

Liturgical objects
Furniture and liturgical objects have been designed so that every religious tradition has the possibility to flesh out the meditation centre in a more specific way. Account has been taken of functionality and specific religious customs, but again there was a search for universal forms. In collaboration with various craftsmen and designers, including a silversmith and the designer Pascal de Caluwe, Meulendijks created three solid bamboo tables on wheels to be used as an altar and a (reading) table, solid bamboo screens on wheels to be used as a mobile wall so as to create a private space, a solid silver bread dish, goblet and candlestick, altar cloths, a crucifix (Christendom), prayer mats (Islam, Hinduism) and a dish bearing the OM symbol (Hinduism, Buddhism). Anachronistic details were also applied, not in order to bring the past up to date but in order to make every notion of time evaporate.
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