'Hyper-Modern Yet Curiously Medieval' Edwin Heathcote on the Amsterdam School
ARCHITECTURE 1. The museum of Het Schip (‘The Ship), in Amsterdam, designed by Michel de Klerk (1884–1923) and built in 1917–21 entire neighbourhoods, huge new chunks of city, in a style that was coherent without ‘Hyper-modern yet being monotonous or repetitive: brilliantly planned, beautifully executed and elegant quarters which stand remarkably intact and curiously medieval’ work as well today as they did a century ago. The Netherlands never really succumbed to art nouveau, as neighbouring Belgium did. Instead architects looked to England, to the Edwin Heathcote on simplicity and craftsmanship of Arts and Crafts, to the national romanticism emerging in the Scandinavian countries, and to their own the Amsterdam School traditions of quirky brick construction. The Amsterdam School’s first great monument was the Scheepvaarthuis (‘Shipping House’; ost architectural styles are pioneered The Amsterdam School embodies several Fig. 3) of 1913–16, a great brick cliff of a build- by the wealthy. The villa, the man- contradictions. It is an architecture that is ing on Amsterdam’s waterfront, designed to Msion, the upmarket apartment block, instantly recognisable yet difficult to define. house a number of shipping companies. It the blockbuster cultural centre, these have It celebrates the communal and the social displays the exuberant explosion of formal been the vehicles for new architectures. The yet gives almost infinite room for individual ideas and decorative motifs that would come Amsterdam School was different, driven by expression. It can look hyper-modern yet curi- to characterise the school, but they are still the imperatives of social housing, municipal ously medieval.
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