'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. And, at its most creative, it can clearly nascent, evolving. It takes bits from building and civic infrastructure. Its moment, be utterly, infectiously bizarre. Hanseatic brick warehouses and fragments of though very specific to the Netherlands, was The buildings date from the years around colonial exoticism, notably Indonesian temples remarkably influential and, perhaps unusu- the First World War until about 1930. They and Asian pagodas and stupas. It looks a little ally, a huge physical legacy survives. Even the are mostly executed in brick and, with a few towards Chicago – to Louis Sullivan’s towers for Bauhaus never achieved this kind of success, notable exceptions, found in Amsterdam. This urban scale, and to Sullivan’s pupil Frank Lloyd its influence being felt through its successors was not a creative moment which punctuated Wright for its obsessive geometric detail (and and a small number of exquisite items which city streets with a few recognisable and lav- a touch of the Japanese ornament he was so emerged from its workshops. ish landmarks but rather one which created fond of). This was an architecture that spanned Wiskerke/Alamy Stock Photo 54 MARCH 2019 APOLLO the Atlantic, the Pacific and the North Sea, project draws on Arts & Crafts ideas: built architectural magazines. Wendingen (‘wind- embodying a nautical architectural circum- in brick, with terracotta-tiled roofs draped ings’) was catholic in its approach, never navigation of the globe completely appropriate low over the walls, it’s a self-contained com- limiting itself to being a mouthpiece for the to its purpose; and it predicted other architec- plex, with a community hall, a post office movement. Covers were designed by El Lis- tures including expressionism and Art Deco. and a curious central spire like an attenuated sitzky, Johannes Duiker, W.M. Dudok, Hendrik Now a hotel, the Scheepvaarthuis remains a stupa, though the only religion here is decent Wijdeveld, Hermann Finsterlin, Eileen Gray formidable presence. The design was led by housing. The details are exquisite, from the and Vilmos Huszar, issues were dedicated Michel de Klerk (1884–1923) who brought in rounded corners to the blue-tiled caretak- to Frank Lloyd Wright, Jan Toorop, Josef a whole team of colleagues from the office of ers’ booths. The intimate scale is unlike, for Hoffmann and Erich Mendelsohn, tackling Eduard Cuypers – a traditionalist who encour- instance, the public-housing experiments in subjects as esoteric as eastern art, Hungarian aged his colleagues to follow their own paths. Red Vienna a few years later, which celebrate art, advertising, seashells, skyscrapers and They included Piet Kramer (1881–1961), who the proletariat through scale and mass rather crystals. The graphics range from psychedelic would go on to become one of the most prolific than, necessarily, finesse. Expressionism through sparse suprematism of the Amsterdam School architects. In contrast with the acres of attractive and swirling symbolism. There has never been The success and popularity of the working-class housing enlivened by brick anything quite like it. Scheepvaarthuis opened the floodgates. Dur- reliefs and delicate brick corbels, there is Among the contradictions embodied by the ing the First World War the Netherlands was the incredible exoticism of Heiman Louis Amsterdam School was that it was an avant- neutral; construction continued and the archi- de Jong’s Tuschinski Theatre (1921; Fig. 2), garde modern architecture that revelled in tecture developed, helped by a 1901 housing a cinema which foreshadows the decorative ornament – perhaps the last of the breed. And act that initiated huge slum clearances, and orgies of Art Deco. In the streamlined, curving it has remained resolutely popular and pro- by commissions from the ministry of hous- corners of many of the buildings you can spot foundly practical. The hundreds of bridges, ing and construction and from the ministry the impulse behind Britain’s Odeon cinema booths, urinals and streetscapes Piet Kramer of public works. The latter employed young boom of the 1930s; in the more restrained designed remain a part of Amsterdam’s every- Amsterdam School architects to design every- buildings, you can see the influences behind day landscape, largely unremarked on and thing from street furniture and bridges (Piet Britain’s solid town halls and the municipal not on the tourist trail. It was a modernism Kramer alone designed an astonishing 400 architecture of the interwar period. You can tailored to a particular place, imbibing its his- new bridges) to municipal schools and swim- see, too, how German Expressionism was pro- toric scale and material culture while inventing ming pools. foundly influenced by these buildings with something that still seems strikingly new and The most characteristic works, though, their blend of the angular and the organic, enduringly useful. o were housing. The best known is De Klerk’s the crystalline and the watery. Eigen Haard (‘Own Hearth’; Fig. 1), also known The movement came with its own in-house Edwin Heathcote is the architecture and as Het Schip (‘The Ship’), built 1917–20. The publication, perhaps the most beautiful of all design critic of the Financial Times. 3. The Scheepvaarthuis (‘Shipping House’), designed by Michel de Klerk and others and built in 1913–16 (photo: 19XX) / xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 2. The Tuschinski Theatre, designed by Heiman Louis de Jong (1882–1942) and built in 1921 Scenics and Science/Alamy Stock Photo APOLLO MARCH 2019 55.

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