The renovation plans

In 2021, the historic building of the rectory in Helchteren was for sale. Like many municipalities, Houthalen-Helchteren is also dismantling part of its heritage. The building had been empty for some time, fell into disrepair and was also partly vandalized. In the middle of the corona period, we as citizens were strongly confronted with the importance of social connection and meeting. This motivated a group of Helchter residents to unite around the idea of setting up a community center.

This citizen collective approached the municipal government with the request to refrain from selling and to invest in the renovation of the building. This with a view to setting up the building and the garden as a multifunctional community space.

Many discussions followed with the municipal authorities and local partners.

In the meantime, as a citizen collective, we have been given permission to organize a number of activities on the site as a testing ground for their experiment. Since 2022, various activities have been organized in and around the rectory. Taking into account the poor condition of the building, we mainly use the garden and the ground floor where possible.

For example, we organized a local market for makers and artists from the village, (grand)parent child workshops cooking on a campfire, an early bird walk, an Easter event, a torchlight procession, a fire pit evening with a lecture on 'Helchteren in wartime' in collaboration with a local historian, a heritage day on the history of the rectory, a fairground terrace, coffee and cake Sundays, etc. We facilitate the participation evenings on the North - South project for Helchteren and collaborated on the Live projects and the Building Beyond Borders trajectory from UHasselt. (see timeline)

In the meantime, after many discussions, concrete renovation plans are on the table. The municipal government provides budgets to renovate part of the rectory. This concerns the outer shell, techniques, the roof and the interior finishing of the ground floor. An annex is being linked to the rectory where the local royal fanfare may find its home.

This work will start in early 2025. Part of the rectory will be renovated with the resources made available by the municipal authorities.

However, this will not be enough to restore the entire building to its former glory and give it purpose.

For the next phases of the renovation, the initiative and commitment of the residents of Helchteren will be called upon.

We currently view this as a number of different tracks in which we both roll up our sleeves (see the urban harvesting project) and try to generate additional financial resources through project calls, subsidies and sponsorship .