Page 27 - Studio International - September October 1975
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form, thus achieving the twentieth-  designed in 1917, is a heavy-handed   stimulating qualities of sophisticated
      century artists' grand vision of placing   version of the stripped down 'Cubism'   materials, the limpidity of glass, the
      man within the painting instead of in   of Loos and Josef Hoffman, while in his   shine and roundness of finish, lustrous
      front of it.'10                      design for a factory at Purmerend in 1919   and shining colours, the glitter of steel.'
        The Aubette interiors, therefore,   one façade, with its juxtaposition of   Such architecture, he admitted, was
       represent the culmination of Van    horizontals and verticals, recalls the work   `more bound to matter than ever before,'
      Doesburg's personal vision of        of Vantongerloo and Huszar. Only three   but in appearance he believed it would
      architecture, in which space is broken   of his designs, however, are overtly   `rise clear of material considerations' and
      down and recreated or re-expressed   influenced by De Stijl painting, and   in the 'fullness of light, brought to purity
      through a dynamic use of colour. And   these are the project for the sea-side   of form and colour' surpass 'in its freedom
      it is ironic that this unique,       terrace at Scheveningen (1917), the   from inessentialism   . even classical
      idiosyncratic and yet within Van     Oud-Mathensee building shed (1923)   purity.'''
      Doesburg's terms of reference, totally   and the Café de Unie (1924). Oud   The terminology echoes that of
      logical experiment was being completed   described the first and the most   Berlage as well as L'Esprit Nouveau, and
      while J. J. P. Oud, a founder but by that   ambitious of these projects as being   emphasizes the links between the
      time renegade member of the          inspired by Cubism, although its    nineteenth and twentieth-century
      movement, was contributing to the    articulation of standard units is more   architectural traditions, links which in
      formalisms of Weissenhof. For while   reminiscent of the contemporary    Holland were strengthened by the
      De Stijl theories helped to form the   painting of Huszar, Van der Leck and   progressive nature of nineteenth-century
      dogmas of the International Style, it is   Mondrian, and indeed recalls in its   theory and practice, especially in social
      significant that most Dutch          dependence on the form-giving       housing. For the precedents established
      architects disassociated themselves from   properties of light and shadow   by Berlage influenced the expressionist
      Van Doesburg's ideologies when faced   Mondrian's seminal 'plus and minus'   forms of the Amsterdam estates of the
      with the practical problems of designing   paintings at the same resort. In plan,   1920s as well as confirming the
      houses, suburbs and cities. By 1922   however, the terrace remains       disciplines of Oud: disciplines which
      Van t'Hoff, Wils and Oud had all left the                                were to be subsequently destroyed and
      movement, and Oud himself, as city                                       travestied by their pale imitations in
      architect to Rotterdam, was evolving new                                 commercial practice.
      formal concepts to apply to the problem of                                 The De Stijl influence on architectural
      mass housing.                                                            developments in Holland was most
        Oud's experience is interesting,                                       acceptable when it was absorbed by more
      however, in that it demonstrates De Stijl                                pragmatic architects who tempered its
      as a transitional, but formative phase in                                refinements and abstraction with the
      the evolution of the International Style.                                traditional and humanistic concerns for
      He had a sound practical training at an                                  material, scale, variety and texture :
      Arts and Crafts School and School of                                     Jan Wils' 1919 Papaverhof housing estate
      Draughtsmanship in Amsterdam and at   J. J. P. Oud                       in the Hague, for example, is now
                                           Site Office 1923
      Delft Technical University before the                                    mellowed by use and vegetation, and
      first World War, and spent a brief time in   conventional, and the manager's hut for   Dick Greiner's so called 'concrete village'
      Munich working with Theodor Fischer   the Oud-Mathensee estate which Oud   (Watergraafsmeer) on the outskirts of
      while the latter was helping to formulate   was then planning, is far more playful   Amsterdam, commenced in 1921, is also
      the policies of the German Werkbund.   and imaginative. Like Van Doesburg's   humanized by variations of form, detail
      His training in the Berlagian tradition of   Weimar blocks, the building was designed   and scale, as well as by the inclusion
      direct structural expression and social   to express spatial volume; it stood on a   within the scheme of traditional brick
      purpose, therefore, had been reinforced   white plinth, and the separate 'volumes,'   housing by G. Versteeg (who had worked
      by his experience in Germany, and his   their geometry emphasized by surface   with Berlage). And the example of
      early work expresses the positive and   articulation, were painted in primary
      energetic forms of both the Dutch and the   colours. In the Café de Unie, too, which
      German Arts and Crafts Movements.   survived until the bombing of
      Like Van t'Hoff and Mondrian, however,   Rotterdam in 1940, colour, texture and
      he returned to Holland at the outbreak of   graphics played games with form. Oud,
      war; he met Van Doesburg in 1915 when   however, would only permit games in
      they were both living in Leiden, and his   these temporary or 'façade' structures,
      interest in avant-garde painting — Cubism   for his appointment as city architect to
      and Futurism as well as the Dutch   Rotterdam in 1918, a year after he had
      experiments — seems to have developed   joined the De Stijl movement,
      during this period. He knew Vilmos   concentrated his attention on sterner
      Huszar, who was living in nearby    social priorities which were to be
      Voorburg; and Van t'Hoff, who had been   expressed in shining materials and formal
      working in America for the past two years,   rather than spatial abstractions. Unlike   Jan Wils
      introduced him to the work of Frank   Van Doesburg, Oud was concerned with   Papaverhof 1919
      Lloyd Wright — an experience which   the purity rather than the
      both confirmed and challenged his   dematerialization of form. He wished to   Dudok, of course, in Hilversum,
      assumptions about the nature of     create an essentially man-made       demonstrates how abstract and
      architecture. For while Wright shared   environment which demonstrated the   geometrical forms become lyrical and
      Berlage's concern for the expressive   puritan virtues of order, economy,   romantic when expressed in the subtle,
      nature of materials, his architecture   efficiency and cleanliness; and in   harmonious colours of glazed and
      demonstrated an extension rather than   achieving this vision the practical,   natural brick. Such overt references to
      enclosure of space, and so could, in one   symbolic and expressive nature of   earlier and discredited traditions,
      important respect, be associated with the   materials, in the Berlagian and   however, were not acceptable to the
      ideas then being explored by the    Wrightian sense, preoccupied him far   De Stijl canon as formulated by Van
      European abstract painters.         more than they did Van Doesburg the   Doesburg, which became increasingly
        In response to these new influences,   artist, whose abstraction was concerned   concerned with the elementarist
      however, Oud abandoned the tactile and   with space rather than with matter.   demonstration of the relationship of
      telluric qualities of both Berlage and   Nevertheless Oud obviously felt the   matter to space; and the second
      Wright and concentrated on the      need to justify his `materialism'; in   `international' generation of De Stijl,
      expression and articulation of abstract   Holländische Architektur, for example,   enlisted by Van Doesburg in the mid-
      forms derived, it seems, from both fine   which was published by the Bauhaus in   twenties, included experimentalists
      art and architectural sources. The Villa   1926, he describes his vision of   such as Lissitsky and Kiesler rather than
      Allegonda at Katwijk, for example,    architecture as 'unfolding   the    practising architects.

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