Het Schip

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Design for the Het Schip building by Michel de Klerk, 1917
Facade of the building Het Schip am Spaarndammerplantsoen, 2011. The former post office is on the ground floor.

Het Schip ( German  Das Schiff ) is a block of flats built between 1919 and 1921 in the Spaarndammerbuurt district in the west of Amsterdam . The building planned by the architect Michel de Klerk , which got its name due to its unusual shape, is considered to be one of the most important examples of the Amsterdam expressionist school . In the apartment block there are 82 apartments (102 apartments in 1921), a former primary school, which has housed the Museum Het Schip since 2016 , a museum apartment and the former post office.

history

The apartment blocks 1 (from 1913), 2 (1914–1918) and 3 ( Het Schip , 1917–1921) designed by Michel de Klerk at Spaarndammerplantsoen (park in the right half of the picture).
The facade facing the railway line, designed in horizontal lines
The ravens on the corner of the post office, sculpture by Hildo Krop

The Spaarndammerbuurt district emerged as a workers' settlement from the end of the 19th century not far from the harbor on the newly created North Sea Canal in the west of the city. In 1905, the city issued a building ordinance that included the creation of small parks ( Plantsoen in Dutch ) in new residential areas . The area around the Spaarndammerplantsoen , which was opened up for development in the 1910s, already differed fundamentally in its division from the usual urban planning in the area.

In 1913, the young entrepreneur Klaas Hille and his architect Michel de Klerk took over the development of three properties on this site. The very first house attracted attention with its special clinker brick and the use of terracotta brick as a facing brick . Overall, however, the expressionist elements were much more restrained than in de Klerk's first drafts. After the entrepreneur Hille had to give up due to the economic consequences of the First World War , the housing cooperative Eigen Haard took over the further development of the square. From 1914, the architect de Klerk created the second block with significantly more expressionist forms.

When planning the last block of flats from 1917 onwards, de Klerk was given the greatest artistic freedom. Also because, according to the original plans, the building was to house the business premises of the building cooperative, a modern, expressionist prestige building was created, which was to overshadow the previous buildings architecturally and was called Het Schip und Arbeiderspaleis (German workers' palace ). The extraordinary details made the additional work of numerous skilled workers necessary. The completion of the building was comparatively expensive and was delayed by two years. Ultimately, there should hardly be any workers in the house, but mainly socialist medium-sized companies. The building is still used for social housing today .

architecture

The cigar bay
The turret and the small forecourt on the Hembrugstraat
The integrated school building made of dark brick on the Oostzaanstraat

Het Schip is considered to be the culmination of the second phase of the Amsterdam School. Architect Michel de Klerk enriched the light red clinker brick facade of the block , which was essentially made of concrete , with numerous symbolic and expressionistic details. Each side of the house, located on a fan-shaped plot of land, was designed differently according to the local conditions. The inner courtyard of the apartment block consists of small gardens and a school yard, which are connected by a path. Numerous sculptures in the facade of the building were made by the Dutch sculptor Hildo Krop (1884–1970).

On the southeast side, the property runs in a long point towards the Spaarndammerplantsoen. The post office, also set up by de Klerk, was located here until 1999 (today part of the museum). Due to the small width of the building, there are only two residential floors clad with roof tiles above the post office. In order to emphasize the effect of the post office without destroying the idyllic effect, the entrance and exit of the reception hall are located on a turret.

The largely preserved interior of the former post office, also designed by de Klerk, broke with the tradition of the authoritarian post offices of the then state-owned PTT . In contrast to the official dark red, the architect chose violet shades and lavender blue ( carrier pigeon blue ) . On the outside of the post office, there is a brick sculpture that symbolizes ravens on a telegraph pole.

The south-western side along the Zaanstraat of the house, which has a maximum of four upper floors, was designed in a comparatively restrained manner. The horizontal lines of the clinker brick should correspond to the width of the Amsterdam – Haarlem railway line running parallel to the road . A special feature is the bay window on the northwest corner, which was popularly known as cigar due to its shape .

With a turret, a semicircular forecourt and the use of roof tiles as facing bricks, the architect created the idyllic atmosphere of a village square on the Hembrugstraat. This impression is reinforced by the open development of the Patrimonium building complex opposite, built between 1918 and 1919 .

Along the Oostzaanstraat, de Klerk had to integrate the former De Veulens kindergarten ( De Catamaran primary school until 2014 ) into his building. De Klerk succeeded in finding an elegant solution for this compromise, among other things with a noticeably offset bay window towards the main entrance.

Museum Het Schip

Reconstructed workers'
apartment in Het Schip

Museum Het Schip, which is dedicated to the Amsterdam school, social housing and the building, is located in the former school building. From 2001 to 2016 the museum was located in the old post office. In addition to the permanent exhibition and changing themed exhibitions, you can also visit the old post office and the museum apartment on the hourly tour around the building. In addition, there are regular guided tours along other interesting buildings of the Amsterdam School.

Street furniture

An exhibition of various street furniture in the style of the Amsterdam School, among others by Pieter Lucas Marnette (1888–1948) and Anton Kurvers (1889–1940), is shown in the garden of the museum .

Web links

Commons : Het Schip  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Petra van Diemen, Niko Koers: A work of art van baksteen . 1st edition. Amsterdamse School Museum Het Schip, Amsterdam 2018, ISBN 978-90-814397-6-3 , pp. 111 (Dutch).
  2. Jan Pieter Ekker: Heropening Museum Het Schip: 'Bijzonderder dan de Taj Mahal'. In: Het Parool. De Persgroep Nederland, June 29, 2016, accessed February 8, 2020 (Dutch).
  3. ^ Rijksmonumentenregister Monument number: 5500
  4. Rijksmonumentenregister: Monument Number: 5499
  5. Rijksmonumentenregister: Monument Number: 3961. Accessed February 9, 2020 (Dutch).
  6. ^ Eigen Haard: Website housing company. Retrieved September 2, 2020 (Dutch).
  7. ^ Antoine Wilmering: A Conservation Plan for Het Schip in Amsterdam. In: The Getty Iris. July 15, 2016, Retrieved February 9, 2020 (American English).
  8. buiteninbeeld.nl: Hildo Krop . As of February 9, 2020
  9. ^ Museum Het Schip: Collection. In: www.hetschip.nl. March 30, 2018, accessed February 8, 2020 .
  10. Icons van de post: Postkantoor de Klerk . As of April 25, 2011.

Coordinates: 52 ° 23 '23.7 "  N , 4 ° 52' 26.8"  E