Façade van het Vleeshuis te Ieper before 1880

This photogravure captures the façade of the Vleeshuis in Ieper, a building constructed of gray stone in the 17th century. Note the stepped gables that crown the structure, a distinctive feature in Flemish architecture that echoes a reaching towards the heavens. Such verticality, seen in Gothic cathedrals, aims to inspire awe and a sense of the sublime. The rhythmic repetition of windows and vertical piers creates a pattern that satisfies our innate need for order and symmetry. Yet, these same features also appear in domestic architecture. Consider how the architectural elements that were once reserved for sacred places are now recontextualized in market buildings, shifting the symbolic meaning from the divine to the civic. The image engages our collective memory, reminding us of a continuous human effort to create meaning through form, even as that meaning evolves with the passage of time.