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"Het Scheep" (the Ship) is a nickname for the third of three
housing blocks designed in 1917 by Michel de Klerk for the
Spaarndammerbuurt district in northwestern Amsterdam. The spire
at one end of the block is without function and there is no way
to enter it. It's purely emblematic of the position that the
working class inhabitants have attained through their housing.
As with everything De Klerk did, individualized form gives shape
to collective identity.
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period during and just after the first World War witnessed the
birth of an architectural movement in Amsterdam which, through
the opulence of its forms, would dramatically alter the
appearance of that city. At the beginning of the 20th Century,
the prevailing political climate of Amsterdam fostered a
uniquely fertile cultural life. There, several architects of
similar artistic temperament, and beliefs, generated work that
was labeled "The Amsterdam School." The group left an
extraorduinary aesthetic imprint that is still strongly visible
in the city.
Amsterdam's
architecture couldn't have developed as it did without certain
earlier political changes. In 1901, members of the liberal
government succeeded in passing the first
Housing Act, immediately followed by a Public Health Act. In
1905 Amsterdam was the first city to impose a building code.
Benevolent patrons and individuals driven by humanitarian
socialism established the first housing associations to build
for the working classes. The Amsterdam School came to fruition
within this political context; its most successful projects were
municipal commissions, notably public housing.
THE AMSTERDAM SCHOOL
The designation
"Amsterdam School"
originated with the
architect Jan Gratama, a fervent champion of this imaginative
architecture. It was first used to describe a group of young
architects who, in the years around 1915, were stirring up the
already unsettled world of Amsterdam architecture. These
architects included Jan Gratama, Piet Kramer, Michel de Klerk,
P. H. Endt, H. Th. Wijdeveld, J. F. Staal, C. J. Blaauw, P. L.
Marnette, and J. M. Van der May, among others.
The most important
and prolific was Michel de Klerk (1884-1923). In his
collaborations with his colleagues, he was primarily responsible
for establishing the path along which they, and later others,
were to follow. De Klerk was so involved in the original
conception of the school's architecture, that it is often
identified with him. He was its inspirer as well as its most
open-minded interpreter.
MICHEL DE KLERK
In 1898, while
visiting a primary school, the architect Edward Cuypers was so
taken with the drawing skills of the then 14-year-old De Klerk
that he immediately transported the youth to his office. De
Klerk and his fellow draughtsman, Piet Kramer, learned just
about everything while working for Cuypers. They later augmented
their training with evening classes at the Industrial School for
the Working Class.
De Klerk's
apprenticeship finished in 1910, after two interruptions when he
traveled to Scandinavia, amongst other places. In 1911 he
implemented his first design -- a housing block at Vermeerplein.
He then collaborated on the Scheepvaarthuis (Shipping Building
1912-16), and designed three housing blocks in the
Spaarndammerbuurt and housing in Amsterdam South. With the
completion of his three housing blocks in the Spaarndammerbuurt,
the fame of the Amsterdam School was assured: architects the
world over came to see these landmark structures.
These projects
represent a compounding of the compositional idiom of the
Amsterdam School. De Klerk was a very versatile designer: he
took part in numerous competitions and designed interiors and
furniture. Although he never assumed the role of leader of the
Amsterdam School, his contemporaries viewed him as such. After
his death the design journal Wendingen devoted no fewer
than five issues to his work.
THE SPAARNDAMMERBUURT
The
Spaarndammerbuurt is a working class district in the
northwesterly edge of Amsterdam. It is bordered by the railway
line to Haarlem on one side and the estuary harbor installations
on the other. It is rather isolated from the rest of the city
and has retained its architectural unity. During the first three
decades of the century, dwellings were built for dockers and
railway workers on this triangular 54 acre site.
The 1912 expansion
plan for this district called for a regular network of housing
blocks with inner courts and open green space, almost at the
center, which was to be a public square or garden, called the
plantsoen. It was quite a problem to fit the orthogonal road
system into the triangular site, especially at the outer edges,
where the housing blocks were cut off at sharp angles. The
design aroused considerable criticism and the planners were
forced to carry out some limited modifications. But, on the
whole the architects of the individual buildings succeeded in
tackling the urban context with considerable perception, and
resolved the angular character of the plan in highly individual
ways.
Between 1913 and
1921, Michel De Klerk designed three housing blocks for this
district. Two were situated around the central public garden,
the third was located in the immediate vicinity. His
contemporaries were swift to acknowledge them as significant
examples of the new architecture of the Amsterdam School. Today
De Klerk's buildings are still the predominating architectural
features of the district.
De Klerk's
first building in the Spaarndammerbuurt is located in the
middle of the district, on the north side of the plantsoen.
Kamphuis and Hille commissioned him to design this block. It was
a rectangular plot, about 100 meters long, for which De Klerk
designed one single slab with a C-shaped ground plan, four
stories and an attic, facing the Spaarndammerplantsoen. Strict
symmetry dominates the façade plane, though it is subtly broken
by the pyramidal roof which interrupts the roof-line, recalling
a single house.
The most
distinctive features of this block are the parabolic gables
above the four staircases. There has been much discussion on the
origins of this shape, which is reminiscent of Art Nouveau
designs. However, various sketches show that this and other
design ideas were the products of De Klerk's imagination,
modified and adjusted in continuous pursuit of appropriate
architectural design and practical experiment. If anything, the
shapes are reminiscent of the forms of Oceanic art in general
and of Indonesia specifically.
The
second complex was built between 1917 and 1918, a few years
after it had been designed, probably because Klaas Hille was hit
by the crisis in the building trade. One of the largest and most
active housing associations in the country, Eigen Haard (roughly
meaning one's "own hearth"), took the project over. As with the
first building, De Klerk had to pursue the theme of a block with
an inner court off the plantsoen. The long frontage
beside the square measures 85 meters. The north elevation is at
a 90 degree angle to the elevation on the side of the square,
while the south elevation folds to form a sharp corner with a
shop placed at the ground floor.
The third building
block, designed in 1917 for the hosing association Eigen Haard,
includes 102 dwellings, a post office, a meeting hall for the
residents, and an annexed school. It is the best example of what
was termed a "worker's palace" in Amsterdam. It occupies a
triangular site of about 35,000 square feet.
De Klerk designed
the block with a triangular inner court, combining the different
sections of the building as if it were a medieval house with
outbuildings. What he achieved is an organism, cohesive and
complete in its conceptualization. It is not by accident that
all the formal comparisons for the building, ranging from ship
to locomotive, suggest an organic entity with identifiable
components.
De Klerk's edifice
has a wealth of ornamentation: a post horn, a thunderbolt,
winged horses, a windmill, and even pelicans roost on the roof
of the post office. The building's nickname is "the ship." The
prow-shaped form faces the square -- a low structure with
horizontal nautical planking, and the parabolic window
representing the anchor on the ship's side. The horizontal
courses along the flat surfaces resemble the bands along the
side of a vessel, with the undulating line above the doors
symbolizing the water line.
On behalf of the
urban working class, De Klerk fought for freedom from the usual
obligation of using only the essential. In this fight, he used
the rediscovery of the craftsmanship that had formed the basis
of the triumphs of Dutch Naval carpentry. He applied those same
techniques to housing. De Klerk saw in the metaphor of
shipbuilding a way of renewing the treasures of the past. He was
attracted to the formal richness of its craftsmanship. A legion
of patient and useful workers found in De Klerk a courageous
pioneer in the battle for the superfluous.
When De Klerk's
plans for the Spaardammerplansoen were submitted to the city
council, it was exactly this aspect that, even before discussing
costs, drew censure from some of the members. What gave offense
was the air of mild luxury it exuded, a luxury felt to be
somehow improper to mass-housing.
This is the key to
understanding De Klerk's architectural intensity: the absolute
belief in the expressive capacity of his buildings, formed
through a complete, almost obsessive control of their
composition. He spoke through his architecture. His buildings
are moral acts. Through them one can perceive his determination
to give new meaning to urban growth.
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