From a vision to a 34-metre Temple
In High Tech Lab, Jan Loenders built a scale model of his Temple: from a 20-centimetre PLA model to a 90-centimetre CNC-milled MDF model. That model no longer exists, but Jan hopes to build the design one day in Leuven, with a diameter of 34 metres, in wood, stone and glass.
On 11 January 2024, the lights went out in High Tech Lab. Jan Loenders and Frederik Leys placed a mobile phone light in the hollow centre of the MDF Temple. A top rosette with a flower-sun pattern lay on top. The light then appeared in the same shape on the ceiling.
What was special when I came to see it was that we placed a light—from a mobile phone—pointing upwards in the hollow centre, and then a small miracle of light happened!
Jan says he first saw the shape of his Temple in 2006, while fasting and meditating in the open countryside in Wijgmaal, thanks to God. The design is a six-petalled flower of life. He had his first version made by Volumatik in Ukkel as a PLA model with a diameter of 20 centimetres.
After several increasingly larger 3D prints, Jan discussed the possibility of making a larger MDF model with Frederik Leys in 2021. Frederik converted the design into a 3D model and an STL file, bought 2.5-centimetre-thick MDF sheets from a DIY shop in Ghent and milled the parts one by one with the CNC machine in High Tech Lab. He then glued the pieces together so they fitted. This created the 90-centimetre version.
Jan took the MDF Temple to the recycling centre in 2025 because he no longer had space for it. Only the photographs remain. On 9 October 2023, he also made another scale model in High Tech Lab: four 3D-printed quarters of a circle in the shape of the Temple, which he then glued together into one piece.
In High Tech Lab, Jan also developed a small labyrinth game with Chadwick’s help. It is based on his 12-metre-diameter labyrinth, which he painted at the back of the Sint-Kamillus grounds in Bierbeek as a contemplative walking route to the centre and back out again. The blue section was 3D-printed from an STL file. A small metal ball and a round piece of plexiglass were then added.
