Rotterdam church converted into housing eight years after devastating fire

Eight years after a devastating fire reduced the Julianakerk in Rotterdam-Heijplaat to charred ruins, construction has begun to transform the remains into four homes, including one with the church tower still attached, according to Rijnmond. Architect Nima Morkoç, who bought the building just months before the blaze, is leading the project and hopes to hand over the keys to new owners by February.

A fresh concrete floor now lies between the old stone walls of the church. Morkoç, who was still a student of architecture when he purchased the abandoned church in 2017, had initially planned to convert it into a combined living and work space for himself. The fire destroyed those plans. “I think every week: ‘I wish I’d never bought that church,’” he told Rijnmond in the days following the fire.

Now, climbing up the scaffold that wraps around the tower, pieces of scorched brick and charred wood occasionally fall as demolition workers prepare the structure for its new life. On the sixth floor of the tower, the old bronze bell from the 1950s still hangs, although it no longer works and will be removed in the coming weeks. “This will become a balcony,” Morkoç said while standing near the bell. At that level, 20 meters up, the skyline of Heijplaat spreads out in all directions, with orange rooftops, other church towers, cranes, and shipping containers.

Morkoç no longer plans to live in the building himself, but he is determined to finish the project properly, preserving what remains of the original church structure. The tower and several exterior walls have been incorporated into the new design. “I want to leave something impressive behind, and I cautiously dare to say now that that will work out,” he told Rijnmond.

Inside the tower, the damage from the fire is still visible in the discolored plaster, though Morkoç said the walls will soon be insulated and neatly finished. “Then you won’t see it anymore. This might even become a hobby room.”

The complex will include four homes, each with its own entrance—three through former church doors, and one through a new door that will be cut into the stone wall. One of the homes, the most unusual of the group, includes the church tower itself and is still for sale. “It’s a very unique house. I understand that people might find it a bit intimidating to sign for it,” Morkoç told Rijnmond.

That home includes five rooms of about three-by-three meters stacked vertically inside the tower, topped with a 360-degree balcony. “A kids’ room, yoga room, wine cellar, study—it’s all possible,” Morkoç told the newspaper. With the additional living space outside the tower, the house is being sold for 600,000 euros. “For that money, you’re not getting this many square meters in the city center.”

The communal courtyard, currently a gravel-strewn expanse, will be the heart of the project. “You’ll be sitting in your garden, but really you’re still inside the old church.”

While his original plan to live in the Julianakerk with four friends never materialized, Morkoç said the scale of the fire shifted his perspective. “After the fire, I became much more focused on the responsibility I felt toward the neighborhood, the district, and the building. I wanted to leave it behind in a respectful way, and preferably leave behind something great.”