Thursday 3 June

 

Conference Day 1 [included in conference fee]

Lectures in the morning, house tours in the afternoon.

9:00am-12:30pm Location Het Nieuwe Instituut, Museumpark 25 Rotterdam
8:30am CHECK-IN Lecture Hall 

Theme: Pioneers of the Dutch Modern House

We will explore 20th-century Dutch architecture from the Amsterdam School to Post-Modernism, visiting wonderful homes by Rietveld, J.J.P. Oud and Brinkman & Van der Vlugt, and others in Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Several of these are examples of social housing – an area in which the Netherlands is particularly rich.

Keynote Address: Pioneers of the Dutch Modern House

by Hans van Heeswijk

Renowned Amsterdam based architect Hans van Heeswijk, specialises in culture related projects and takes a sensitive approach to the conservation of existing structures. His oeuvre includes museums such as Hermitage Amsterdam and the extensions of Mauritshuis in The Hague and Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Another specialism is renovations of post-war apartment blocks. Van Heeswijk has a profound interest in and knowledge of the typology of the house in the 20th century and visited 200+ houses and house museums world-wide.

From the turn of the century on, architecture in the western world modernised rapidly. Especially after 1918 'Functionalism' or 'The International Style' obtained many followers in architecture throughout the western World. In the Interbellum architects from the Netherlands played a leading role in the development of modern architecture in Europe. Especially Berlage, Van Doesburg, Van Eesteren, Rietveld, Oud, Van der Vlugt and Stam inspired an entire generation of architects. By giving lectures, writing articles in magazines like 'De Stijl', and building stunning examples of avant-garde architecture, they influenced their colleagues throughout the western World. Among these a number of houses in the Netherlands, Belgium and France that will be visited. In his keynote lecture, Van Heeswijk will set the scene of the Dutch modernist architects and makes connections within the European context of the early 20th-century.

• Berlage, De Klerk and the Amsterdam School (TBC)

Alice Roegholt, director Museum Het Schip in Amsterdam.The experiment of the floorplan of houses in the first half of the 20th century in relation to the experiment and innovation of modernism; changing use of space, changing of meaning and what was the context: where did these motives come from?

Alice Roegholt (1955) grew up in a monumental canal house in Amsterdam. Her passion however mainly goes to the neighbourhoods outside the center where many buildings can be found in the style of the Amsterdam School. In 1999 she founded Museum Het Schip in one of the highlights of the Amsterdam School, designed by architect Michel de Klerk. This museum is dedicated to the Amsterdam School and social housing. The model home is part of the Museum. Over the years the museum expanded and developed into an active and vibrant museum in which the art and architecture of the Amsterdam School are presented in their national and international context through permanent and temporary exhibitions. 

• The Cliché of Modernism: Modernity in Sonneveld House

Hetty Berens is an architecture historian who works as a conservator at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam and also manages the Sonneveld House Museum. She is a board member of the Iconic Houses Foundation.

 

BREAK

 

• The Restorations of the Rietveld Schröder House –A Reflection

Natalie Dubois, design curator Centraal Museum Utrecht. This lecture will reflect on the various restorations that have now been put on a sound scientific footing by means of archival research, technical analysis and oral history, thanks to a Keeping it Modern Grant from the Getty Foundation. 

• Experimental Housing '68 -'80 

Anita Blom, Senior Specialist Post-War Architecture and Urban Design Project Leader ‘Verkenning Post 65’ at the RCE/Cultural Heritage Agency, The Netherlands.

With the Experimental Housing program, the central government wanted to encourage innovation in housing in the 1970s, with a focus on the living environment and residents' participation. The Experimental Housing program was intended not only for the expansion neighbourhoods, but also for urban renewal areas and the projects still appeal to the imagination. All completed projects have been visited again and assessed for their qualities. Do the projects still have meaning for the current residents and can lessons be drawn for the current housing assignment in The Netherlands? The research was conducted as part of the 'Verkenning Post 65' of the Cultural Heritage Agency. The purpose of this scouting is to advise the Minister of Education, Culture and Science about the significance of architecture, urban design and the landscape from the period between 1965 and 1990 and how to deal with it now. How is this heritage valued by citizens and professionals, are these the monuments of the future and how can this legacy play a significant role in current and future challenges in the spatial planning of the Netherlands?

 

Boxed LUNCH served on the bus

Afternoon House Tours - Amsterdam 1:00-9:30pm

The House Tours in the afternoon will lead to a house museum in the building block of Museum Het Schip, one of Michel de Klerk's grand works (1919-1921) in Amsterdam School fashion; two Zomerdijkstraat studio houses by Zanstra, Giesen, Sijmons; the privately owned Van den Doel House (1959) designed by Gerrit Rietveld, in Ilpendam, a tiny village on the outskirts of Amsterdam and a view of the Amsterdam Extension Plan (Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan – AUP) started by Cornelis van Eesteren in the 1930s. Reception in Museum Het Grachtenhuis, a Museum that celebrates the UNESCO World Heritage canal houses that make Amsterdam so special, with an innovative multi media presentation.