Het Schip A WORK OF ART IN BRICK Amsterdam 1919-1921 Up-and-coming architect Michel de Klerk designed an urban block of 102 apartments and one post office, envel- A WORK OF oping an existing primary school. The patron of this prominent project was the visionary housing society, Eigen Haard. This “workers’ palace” is now ART IN BRICK the acknowledged culmination of the SIGNIFICANCE AND RESTORATION OF HET SCHIP, AMSTERDAM design movement known today as the AN ICON OF SOCIAL HOUSING AND ARCHITECTURE, 1919-1921 Amsterdam School. One hundred years later, the restoration of this complex has again come to the fore. The histories and controversies con- cerning the Amsterdam School are PETRA VAN DIEMEN uncovered and reinterpreted, and the TON HEIJDRA genesis and life cycle of the building are NIKO KOERS brought into focus. The book describes CISCA VAN DER LEEDEN the choices that were made for mate- RAMON PATER rials and working methods during the RICHELLE WANSING restoration of 2015-2018. Recipes used are described in meticulous detail, from brick to leaded glass and from “lion head” to “cigar”. Few compromises have been made in restoring the integrity of the original image of this complete work of art, an icon of social housing and architecture. This book is abun- dantly illustrated and written by the very specialists who were leading in this restoration. Oostzaanstraat 45 MUSEUM 1013 WG Amsterdam HET SCHIP www.hetschip.nl A WORK OF ART IN BRICK SIGNIFICANCE AND RESTORATION OF HET SCHIP, AMSTERDAM AN ICON OF SOCIAL HOUSING AND ARCHITECTURE, 1919-1921 PETRA VAN DIEMEN TON HEIJDRA NIKO KOERS CISCA VAN DER LEEDEN RAMON PATER RICHELLE WANSING WEBSITE VERSION This PDF is the website version of the book A WORK OF ART IN BRICK. This book is intended as the restoration management plan for the 2015-2018 restoration of urban block Het Schip in Amsterdam. It serves also as a documentation of the restoration project. For copyright reasons some chapters and some pictures are not included. For higher resolution of the pictures, as well as for lengthy copying and re-use of the texts, permission by the owner of the copyrights is required, in which case please contact the publisher of the book. This book (English ISBN 978-90-814397-7-0 and Dutch ISBN 978-90- 814397-6-3) can be ordered via [email protected], www.hetschip.nl Content Foreword \ 5 Editorial \ 7 1 The Amsterdam School: individualism and society \ 9 2 Michel de Klerk: architect and artist \ 17 3 The Amsterdam School and the quest for the true modern \ 33 6 A transformation: school to museum \ 57 7 Visions of restoration provide a future to our past \ 67 INTERMEZZO: photo section on the restoration \ 82 9 Masonry \ 105 10 Windows \ 133 11 Doors \ 151 12 The aesthetic use of roof tiles \ 157 15 Leaded glass \ 171 16 Iron and wrought steelwork \ 181 17 Prominent decorative components \ 193 Post scriptum \ 199 FINAL: a work of art in brick \ 200 Bibliography \ 238 About the authors \ 249 Colophon \ 250 A WORK OF ART IN BRICK | 3 | | 4 | A WORK OF ART IN BRICK ousing complex Het Schip evokes admiration all over the world. It is a Foreword Hworkers’ palace in all respects. Not only is it a beautiful building, but, above all, it is a building that has a fascinating story to tell as well. The complex was a response to the dreadful housing conditions in nineteenth century Netherlands, when factories were built in the cities at a high rate. To achieve maximum output, they needed many workers. Many of them arrived from the rural countryside, where life was unpredictable - a bad summer called for no harvest. The factory seemed to preclude chance. Every day one went to work. Every day production occurred according to a fixed plan. The rural communities died. Windmills disappeared, as did farms with their barns and haystacks. The country was changing. It was time for a goodbye. Goodbye to rural life. However, work in the factories was hard and there was a shortage of decent homes. Many had to live in slums, hovels, and sometimes in cellars, half underground, with prevalent diseases and sickness. The 1901 Housing Act attempted to address this and enabled housing associations to build good homes in great numbers. Government loans financed the efforts of these self-organizing cooperatives. Art and architecture also reacted to mass production and migration to the cities. Influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement, the vocations of skilled craftsmen were once again appreciated. A new respect grew for the old, rural culture and the decorative arts from other cultures. Full of ideals, people focused on a better future. The architect Michel de Klerk was strongly influenced by these developments. He traveled to London, Germany, and Scandinavia and was bewildered by their building traditions. He recorded that in many drawings. Frequent are the references in his work to what he had experienced. In his architecture around Spaarndammerplantsoen, we find many quotations from rural art from the North of Holland, from Scandinavia, and from Asiatic countries. In Het Schip, we can see his search for new forms and materials. De Klerk, like no other, was able to link the past with the modern. He molded his buildings into total works of art seen in their overall composition, as well as in the tiniest of details. Alice Roegholt Director, Amsterdam School Museum Het Schip A WORK OF ART IN BRICK | 5 | | 6 | A WORK OF ART IN BRICK his book provides a complete narrative on the restoration of an Editor’s note Timportant international icon of architecture and social housing. All authors involved with this work through the past decade are architects, art historians, building historians, project leaders, building professionals, and museum staff members. Together, they represent the multitude of perspectives and disciplines indispensable for such a restoration. The book is a reflection of the many layers of significance of the archi- tecture of the urban block “Het Schip,” by architect Michel de Klerk, in the “Spaarndammerbuurt” neighborhood in Amsterdam. De Klerk’s buildings in this historic neighborhood acquired formal listed building status since 1974. This book highlights the Amsterdam School of design and its notorious search for “the modern,” the biography of the architect, conceptions of restoration, functional transformation of parts of the complex, and the search for the best methods and recipes for the restoration of the architectural and structural components of Het Schip. Thus the book also accounts for the completed restoration. The paradoxes inherent in the architecture of Michel de Klerk and the Amsterdam School can be re-discovered in this book. Readers will encounter the complexities found between individualism and communal art, modernity and craft, tradition and revolution, totality and detail, symbolism and decoration, art and politics, and artist and architect. The nickname of the complex, Het Schip, means “The Ship,” and the symbolism of waves oscillating across the ocean are symbolic for the shifting popularity of the building throughout the decades. We want to honor the significance of the paradox during this period of architecture. We do not shy away from polemic positions, even amongst our own authors. The restoration process itself has similar layers. Heritage inspectors, users - from residents to museum and social housing associations -, technicians, historians, contractors, installers, and budget officers, to name a few, are all involved. This architectural housing complex will always be in the public eye. Every architecture student will have “Het Schip” on her or his radar. By accepting this project into the “Keeping it Modern” conservation program, The Getty Foundation in Los Angeles has propelled this restoration into international dialogue on restoration. For all Het Schip is, it is first and foremost an expression of exceptional human fantasy. While this fantasy cannot always be simply interpreted through word or sketch, it still relays a personal, internal feeling to all observers. It is delightful that this feeling, this fantasy, has persisted throughout time. By definition, Het Schip makes all statements of position subject to discussion, and that is the power of this monument. Niko Koers A WORK OF ART IN BRICK | 7 | | 8 | A WORK OF ART IN BRICK The Amsterdam School: individualism and society 1 Niko Koers haping human existence as an art, for all classes of society, such could be the characterization of the expressive design movement in The Netherlands, which had its peak between 1915 and 1925. Everything requiring form, such as exterior and interior architecture, furniture, jewelry, glasswork, typography, or dance and music, was approached as art. These 1 Sdesigner-artists found themselves in the midst of a society that underwent enormous modernization. In this chapter, we emphasize how their designs served society, while also exhibiting hyper- individualistic qualities. UNDEFINABLE AMSTERDAM SCHOOL The term Amsterdam School was used for the first time in 1916 by Jan Gratama, “…the newest movement in building art: the modern Amsterdam School, with its expressionism, its modern romanticism, and its fantasy”.1 The architects of the Amsterdam School, of whom Michel de Klerk was the undisputed leader, never called themselves a “School“ of any kind. On the contrary, in their periodical, Wendingen, published between 1918 and 1933 by the Amsterdam architectural society, Architectura et Amicitia, they tried to ignore the term school. They almost succeeded, and, in fact, would do so later on with the help of the rise and dominance of modernist architecture. The architects of the Amsterdam School would have much rather called themselves “Fantasyful.” This is demonstrated through the following quote from the first article in the first issue of Wendingen. “Leistikow is to her dance what De Klerk is to his architecture, to their surroundings more a danger than a support, but (…) the delight of beauty grows in their individualism (…) and then scrutiny is silenced and we may only admire.”2 Moreover, they tried to internationalize their approach to architecture and art through their essays in Wendingen.