Photos of Dutch architecture

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 11:57 pm

Dutch architect Klaas Vermaas has recorded many photographs of work in his native land. Dutch brick-masonry is a continuing source of joy. I recently came across a flickr album of photos he classifies as Prairie-School-inspired. There are four pages of photos here, with an essay about the genre. You'll find the key to the other pages at the bottom of the first one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klaasfotoc ... 811687455/

Dudok's deservedly famous town hall at Hilversum is given generous coverage, inside and out; I have never seen color photos of this sumptuous and disciplined interior.

Readers will have to provide their own translations of the captions -- but an architect's name and a date are usually evident. The photographer has a pleasant habit of greying-out distracting motor vehicles . . .

SDR

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:44 am

And . . . when you're through with that, there's more . . . so much more. Check out German Expressionism . . .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klaasfotoc ... 621191508/

SDR

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:46 am

SDR, I've been following Klaas' photostream for awhile now, but had not realized he had this collection. Pretty cool. Do you know this guy?

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:50 am

Check this guy out too. On Flickr he's got to be one of the best:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seier/

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 9:47 am

Brilliant... Thanks SDR and Tom

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 9:53 am

Thanks for these links. I've always been particularly drawn to the German Expressionist work as pictured here...it is an interesting blend of Art Deco details, Prairie forms/asymmetry, and in some respects, British modernism as seen in Charles Holden's Underground stations. The work has a rich texture that works at so many scales in an urban environment.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:30 am

Wouldn't it be fine to live in a culture where inventive and richly humanist work of this kind had been conceived and built, its superb and engaging craftsmanship (apparently) appreciated, preserved without alteration through the decades ?

No, I hadn't seen these photos until a link somewhere -- perhaps on Daily Dose of Architecture or Archinect -- brought the photographer to my attention.

SDR

jim · Post by **jim** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 11:34 am

Lets not forget Willem Dudok, City Architect of Hilversum, and his many schools, town hall, etc. There are many URLs on the Hilversum Town Hall, and here are a few general sites:

http://www.architectuur.org/dudok.php

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... em-marinus

http://toolbar.inbox.com/search/results ... -0JvGobU-s@

Rood · Post by **Rood** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:16 pm

More Dudok

http://www.flickr.com/groups/dudok/pool/

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:29 pm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuveleyn/6 ... 85385@N25/

Thanks. None of the many Hilversum Town Hall photos in Vermass's collection concentrates on this massive entrance cantilever. (Indeed, the individual bricks are nowhere evident in his exterior shots -- just acres of perfectly planar pale-yellow surfaces.) Horizontality is the dominant mode in this particular photo.

SDR

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:36 pm

Fantastic group pool on Dudok. Thanks.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:43 pm

What did you think of the interior of the Hilversum building ? I had no idea what it looked like . . .

SDR

jim · Post by **jim** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 6:30 pm

Its been a long time since I have been to Hilversum, but my recollection of the interiors of Dudok's buildings is that there is a great interplay of spaces and natural light, with low ceilinged rooms juxtaposed with vertical stairhalls, low long corridors juxtaposed with great rooms, etc. The spatial qualities are especially interesting in the grammar schools, where the spaces and features are scaled down to children's scale â€“ not just small furniture as in American schools, but low rooms, low doors, low window sills, etc. To an adult, it is at once unnerving and then transforming to appreciate whose realm we are in.

The variety and mixture of materials and colors in the finishes is both classic and inventive. Most of the furnishings and fixtures in all his buildings are custom designed. Everything is detailed magnificently. There is a high level of craftsmanship and maintenance as one would expect in the Netherlands.

Rood · Post by **Rood** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:46 am

jim wrote: There is a high level of craftsmanship and maintenance as one would expect in the Netherlands.

Holland is full of fascinating buildings ... from ordinary thatch-roofed houses to fine examples of modern architecture. One instance: Click on the photo of Dudok's Pump House at Laapersveld and notice the building behind the Pump House. It's the photo in the fourth row down ... to the far left.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/dudok/pool/