Expertmeeting 2015 Getty Foundation Grant application Museum Het Schip TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Project proposal 3. Images Museum Het Schip is in februari 2015 uitgenodigd door Project Description i. Bureau Monumenten en de Getty Foundation om een voorstel te doen voor een a. Building Archeologie, City of grant in het kader van de de Foundation’s Keeping b. Significance of the building Amsterdam it Modern Initiative. Hierbij was het nodig om alle c. Current condition of the building ii. Rijksdienst Cultureel Erfgoed argumenten vóór het belang van het stedelijk blok Het d. Owner of the building c. Scientific Advisory Committee Schip weer eens op een rijtje te zetten. Work Plan Appendices to the project description Juist ook in het kader van Unesco werelderfgoed is a. Conservation planning (of the 1. Proposal for Research on Symbolism het de vraag of dit icoon van de volkshuisvesting in parts for which the grant is requested) and Meaning of Artefacts of Het Schip Nederland én van de Amsterdamse School niet opnieuw b. Data collection from research complex; list of literature als kandidaat voor deze Unesco-status zou moeten and analyses; responsible person 2. Book, proposal worden bezien. c. Previous conservation(s) (past ten 3. Executive Summary of Feasibility years) Study 2013 De belangrijkste onderdelen van deze aanvraag Activities proposed for Getty Foundation 4. Executive Summary of Report on (inmiddels toegekend!) worden in dit document additional funding: Construction History 2014 weergegeven. d. Conservation parts: i. Masonry ii. Roof and wall tiles iii. Entrance doors and staircases iv. Architectural and artistic details v. Missing leaded glass windows e. Symbolism and meaning of architectural and artistic details: i. List of symbols ii. Literature research on meaning and artistic discourse f. Documentation of 2015 restoration and guide for sustainable maintenance for professionals. ‘Woonwijzer’ for future inhabitants. g. Video documentation h. Documentation and Presentation: websites, book and Scientific Advisory Committee Project Management and Personnel a. Individuals involved. Roles and responsibilities, qualifications. Project supervisor. Specialists and consultants. b. Government Agencies monitoring the project. INTRODUCTION In a relatively short time span in the early 20th century From its urban layout to every detail it is a true “modernism”. The importance of the experiments in (between 1910 and 1930), the so called ‘Amsterdam Gesamtkunstwerk. the confluence of architecture and urbanism in the School’ of design and architecture showed the world The Amsterdam School, in its design, architecture and Spaarndammerbuurt neighborhood in Amsterdam, a passionate synergy between artistic and social social movement, was of defining importance in the of which Het Schip is a part, is underlined in Panerai, movements. The impulse of shaping and producing our modernization of The Netherlands: from the first social Castex and Depaule’s influential “Urban Forms: The living environment, both socially and physically, has housing areas, utility buildings, offices and factories Death and Life of the Urban Block” (English translation changed the face of our cities as well as our daily life. to consumer articles and objects of art. Its inspiration 2004). The theme of modernity and/or/versus The Amsterdam School stood for: for many architects, designers, thinkers and politicians modernism was put on the agenda of the national worldwide is undisputed. pavilions at the 2014 Venice Biennale of Architecture, • Social movement: elevating the population on curated by Rem Koolhaas, entitled “Absorbing the basis of progressive and liberal, socialistic Modernity, international movements, and the Modernity 1914-2014”. and religious ideals, by practicing building Amsterdam School and architecture, design, crafts and industrial It is presently well established that The Amsterdam The timing of the restoration of this urban block and the production, art, politics, self-organization and School was a key movement by which Dutch architecture opening of the extended Amsterdam School Museum education. entered international modernity. It was rooted in the Het Schip could not be better. Stedelijk Museum • Style: plasticity, grace, movement, equilibrium, same influence of the architect Berlage’s rationalism as Amsterdam organizes a large scale exposition on meaning and revolutionary architectural and the other, simultaneous but opposite, Dutch international Amsterdam School in 2016, the first since 1975. In 2016 artistic detailing but deeply rooted in building contribution to early 20th century architecture, “De several organizations in Amsterdam (Stedelijk Museum, trade and crafts. Stijl”. City Archives, ARCAM Architecture Center Amsterdam • Spirituality: symbolism, naturalism, (natural) The catalogue of the 1975 Stedelijk Museum exhibition Marketing and Museum Het Schip) organize “The religion, dance and music. that led up to the re-appreciation of expressionist International Year of the Amsterdam School”. The synergy, the total sum of these movements Amsterdam School architecture and design, describes is essential to the understanding of The the movement as: “The appearance of the Phantasy Amsterdam School. The interaction of these driven ones, open-mindedly playing with the treasures movements was a manifestation of modernity of rationalism”. This was a quote from the opening by which it entered the international stage statement of the Amsterdam School periodical It heralded everything new and progressive, Wendingen in 1918 by its editor, the architect H.Th after the romanticism of neo-styles at the end of Wijdeveld, and this statement comes closest to a the nineteenth century. manifesto (quod non) of the movement. This attitude, revived in our memory by Wim de Wit (who until Icon of modernity: urban block Het Schip (The Ship) recently worked at the Getty Research Institute) is Amsterdam School Museum Het Schip is situated in elaborated on in his 1983 Cooper-Hewitt Museum an urban block, that was designed in 1917 by the exhibition catalogue: “The Amsterdam School, Dutch well-known Dutch architect Michel de Klerk and that Expressionist Architecture, 1915-1930”, in which he its inhabitants gave the nickname “The Ship. This points at the common spiritual goals of the Amsterdam urban block’s design concept caused a big stir on School and De Stijl, in contrast to the many other an international scale. It is now one of the Dutch diverging aspects of the two movements. government’s top 100 heritage sites and it has been In this sense the development of the unified urban block proclaimed as one of the most significant 20th century Het Schip – as opposed to an urban development buildings by the International Union of Architects. It is consisting of repetitious single dwellings – must be recognized as one of the best examples of Amsterdam considered an internationally significant Dutch landmark School and Modern Expressionist architecture. that provides insight into modernity, however not into Terug naar inhoudsopgave PROJECT DESCRIPTION The full restoration of urban block Het Schip, Amsterdam o Masonry a. The Building with a previous Michel de Klerk project designed for is planned for 2015/2016. The main objective of the o Roof and wall tiles Hille (the Hillehuis in Amsterdam South), they once museum and of the owner of the block Eigen Haard is o Entrance doors and staircases A separate book is dedicated to the building: again asked Michel de Klerk to create a design. The to attain the best results in the sustainable restoration o Architectural and artistic details “WORKER’S PALACE THE SHIP, by Michel de Klerk”. first building plans dating from November 1913 reveal of the numerous sculptural details and the magnificent o Missing leaded glass windows The context of the building is explained in biographical, that De Klerk continued along the lines initiated with craftsmanship applied to the whole building. The • First time research into the significance urbanistic, architectural and social terms. The building Hillehuis. secondary objective is the dissemination of the (meaning) and iconography of sculptural work is described thoroughly in its component parts (housing, Again, the facade was conceived as a totality, but knowledge thus acquired and raising the interest in the and of abstract details (colour, material, form) post office, court yard, school, meeting cottage, tower). the new building fitted into its surroundings to a much application of crafts in expressionistic modern buildings. • Documentation and presentation of the The appreciation by contemporaries, the ‘downfall’ greater extent than Hillehuis, with the façade and restoration process and result in websites, under the influence of CIAM (Congrès Internationaux the public green space blending into one another, The project for additional funding by the Getty sustainable maintenance plan, documentation d’Architecture Modernes), as well as the revival after the as it were. De Klerk lavished much attention on the Foundation comprises: for tenants, film, book and expositions. 1960s are documented. The book includes an elaborate stairwells, which have sensual shapes, small windows • Additional research into restoration techniques listing of national and international literature devoted to and parabolic shaped gables, giving them an almost (materials, handling and application) of In close co-operation with block owner Eigen Haard, the urban block and on the Amsterdam School. A copy human