Nijkleaster winner Gulden Feniks 2024

During the NRP conference in Nijmegen on Thursday, November 7, Nijkleaster was named the winner of the Gulden Feniks. The NRP Gulden Feniks is the national award for renovation and transformation of the built environment. Successes and insights are shared here; the Gulden Feniks is a prize to learn from. 

From the judges' report:

'Perhaps the greatest spatial and social challenges of today can be found in the countryside, the jury said. The transformation of a head-neck farmhouse into a contemporary monastery ensures that this piece of Frisian countryside is given a sustainable future. And how! Sometimes a single transformation project can create shifts far beyond its own scale. The empty farmhouse was given a function that fits seamlessly with the social task of the countryside: the disappearance of facilities and places of gathering. The monastery is a civic initiative and offers accommodation for contemplation. Interventions in water management ensured that the increasingly barren Frisian landscape here has become healthy again for people and animals.

Gesamtkunstwerk of the 21st century

This project proves that activating a place is much more than renovating or transforming buildings. A new way of living together and experiencing faith has been built here. The jury therefore identifies Nijkleaster Westerhûs as a "gesamtkunstwerk van de 21ste eeuw": a place where people live together in cohesion with the landscape. When the jury settles down in the outdoor chapel at the end of the project visit, the conversation falls silent. There is nothing more to ask; all the assessment requirements have been gloriously ticked off. But that is not it; there is more. The inspiration of the place is palpable to all. Quality has been realized here that only arises through enormous enthusiasm. That automatically makes you silent.