Katholieke territoria. Het maken van plaatsen in het aartsbisdom Mechelen-Brussel en het bisdom Antwerpen, 1945–1975

After the Second World War, the Roman Catholic Church embarked on an extensive building campaign of churches, chapels, presbyteries, and schools. This study examines the processes of planning, designing, and realising these buildings in the Belgian Archdiocese of Malines-Brussels and the Diocese of Antwerp from 1945-1975. The research aims to understand how members of the Church created, used, and attributed meaning to these buildings, as well as how these places were embedded in their spatial context. Moving beyond aspects of style and liturgy, and demystifying the influence of individual actors and movements, we focus on the complexity of actors and factors involved in the design and realisation processes. The methodology includes quantitative and qualitative analyses of data sets, case studies, and the synthesis of findings in diagrams. We assess how the notions of territory, community, and architecture evolved in the post-war period, using the parish as an analytical framework. After exploring the historical and conceptual framework, we examine the work of René Van Steenbergen in the Campine region, the changing understanding of sacredness in a church design by Lode Wouters and Paul Meekels in Wilrijk, a regional pastoral planning experiment by the Centre de Recherches Socio-Religieuses in Brussels, and the exchange between a lay community and Jean Cosse for the design of a house-church in Waterloo. By zooming in on key moments such as site negotiations, architect selection, and financing, this study offers a broad view of how post-war church and parish buildings materialised. It shows how the decision-making processes broadened to include both laypeople and experts. The architect acted not only as a designer, but also as mediator for liturgical and stylistic innovations and an advisor in site selection. Despite this broader involvement, the diocesan bodies increasingly sought to control the processes by asserting authority and mobilising expertise. In the siting of church and parish buildings, the local scale remained of predominant importance, and pragmatism played a significant role, even in contexts where planning instruments were used. Overall, this study shows that through the actions of planners, architects, sociologists, priests and laypeople alike, religion played a role in shaping post-war neighbourhoods, where traditional basilicas, as well as multifunctional parish centres and intimate house-churches still occupy a place today.