Jan Wils (architect)

Jan Wils (1928)

Jan Wils (born February 22, 1891 in Alkmaar , † February 11, 1972 in Voorburg ) was a Dutch architect .

As a leading representative of the Amsterdam School , he was one of the most famous Dutch architects until the 1920s, but his work after the Second World War remained largely unappreciated. Once famous, he was downright disdained in his later lifetime.

For decades he was mainly perceived as a founding member of the avant-garde artists' association de Stijl , where he was overshadowed by well-known members such as Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian . He was often referred to as a “pre-war architect” and his architectural merits were reduced to a few early works.

Even if he was unable to build on his prewar successes as the architect of the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam after the Second World War, his oeuvre is increasingly appreciated posthumously . With his architecture, which is deeply influenced by the style of the American Frank Lloyd Wright , such as the Papaverhof residential complex in The Hague , the Amsterdam “City” theater, the office building of the Centrale Onderlinge insurance in The Hague, as well as his intensive journalistic activity, he becomes a link between HP Berlage and his own style development as well as functionalism with a clear influence on contemporary architecture.

After the Second World War, Wils also received orders from the United States and overseas, such as from Curaçao ; in the Netherlands he devoted himself largely to building housing for the middle class. Nevertheless, the Olympic Stadium is also considered to be his undisputed main work in retrospect .

His oeuvre includes well over 200 architectural works.

Life

Jan Wils was the eldest son of the medium-sized building contractor Evert Wils and his wife Jannetje Blankman. From 1903 to 1907 he took part in industrial training at the Burgeravondschool in Alkmaar. Shortly afterwards, one of his first architectural studies was carried out, an Art Nouveau gable for L. Kruier's pharmacy from 1908. In 1910 he received his HBS (Hoogere Burger School) diploma, which is comparable to the German secondary school diploma . From 1910 to 1913 he worked in his father's company. His father made it possible for him to study several times, including in Germany, and aroused his interest in architecture by entrusting him with smaller projects such as the construction of summer houses and various conversions that were commissioned by family members or acquaintances at his construction company.

In 1912 Wils joined the Alkmaar city administration as a volunteer . During this time he may have worked on the redesign of the Alkmaarer Schapenbrug from 1912, as unsigned technical drawings of the bridge are in the Wils archive of the Dutch Architecture Institute.

It is unknown whether he actually studied architecture at the Technical College in Delft, which is often assumed. His name does not appear in any student or enrollment directory there. Possibly and more likely he took courses with Joseph Cuypers (1861-1949) and / or Jan Stuyt (1868-1934) in Amsterdam instead .

His first major project: a car workshop in Alkmaar

In June 1912, on the occasion of an exhibition on the subject of brick , Wils took part in a competition organized by Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Bouwkunst (Society for the Promotion of Architecture) to design a “rural house”, which - according to the specifications - was made of brick as much as possible and should not exceed a production price of ƒ 2,200. More than 120 entries were submitted, Wils won second place behind the Hague architect Willem Verschoor and caught the attention of the Alkmaar company Stikkel, Olt en Tenzeldam , which commissioned him to design a car workshop . He designed this first major project as a monumental building with restrained classical elements and an invisible construction made of concrete reinforcement . The particular challenge of the project was to create a company building located in the middle of a residential area of ​​the city that blended harmoniously into this environment without impairing the required function of a car repair shop with a gas station and sales area.

In the architecture magazine Bouwkundig Weekblad of 1914, Wils' work was mentioned as exemplary for such tasks and mentioned with praise. In the same year Wils designed a workers' house in Alkmaar and a summer house in Bergen .

Architectura et Amicitia

In 1913 Wils moved to The Hague, where he got a job at Johan Mutters' architectural office . In his free time, he took part in an architecture competition organized by the Dutch architects' association Architectura et Amicitia and again achieved second place. This made Hendrik Petrus Berlage aware of him as a member of the jury and hired him as a draftsman.

During this time in The Hague, Wils, inspired by Berlage, developed his convictions for a better socialist world and a more harmonious coexistence of society. In doing so, Wils went much further than Berlage and looked for the ideal of a social order tending towards communism - ideas that he was later able to share with other members of the De Stijl group, but also as a Freemason with his confreres. Professionally, he became a staunch supporter of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright , not only because of the spatial quality of his designs, but also because of his conviction that the focus should be on people and not on architecture.

In 1914, Wils married the pharmacist's assistant Gepke van der Veen from Winschoten ; the couple moved into a house on Van Buurenstraat in The Hague.

From 1915 to 1917 Wils took part in various tenders, most of them in the style of the Amsterdam School. Only the last design from this period, a pavilion in the Groningen city ​​park from 1917, is almost entirely in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. Today this design is undoubtedly regarded as progressive, but the verdict of the jury at the time was: “The plan may seem interesting in its execution, but it will be more suitable for a mountain landscape than for the flat Groninger Park.” In 1916, Wils was Secretary of the Architectura et Amicitia and had started his own business as an architect. In addition to the realization of smaller residential buildings, in his early years he was commissioned to plan an agricultural homestead in Winschoten (1916–1917) and a chapel in Nieuw-Lekkerland (1916–1920).

De Stijl

Van Doesburg's window design for the school in Sint Anthoniepolder

In 1916, Wils met Theo van Doesburg , either through Berlage, in the Haagsche Kunstkring artists' association or in the De Sphinx art club in Leiden, founded by van Doesburg in 1916 . They found that they had developed similar ideas about modern architecture and began a collaboration that was accompanied by a personal friendship. Probably the oldest traces of their collaboration can be found in a school in Sint Anthoniepolder , which Wils had designed in 1916 and for which van Doesberg contributed a colored stained glass window on his order in 1917 .

In 1918 Wils and van Doesburg won second place in an architecture prize for the design of a fountain monument on the station square in Leeuwarden . Wils had designed the layout and van Doesburg designed the monument.

At the end of 1917, van Doesburg invited Wils to publish in his recently founded magazine de Stijl , which he did with two articles in the first year. The movement that formed around the magazine was looking for a social order in which all elements act in an egalitarian, harmonious and conflict-free manner, which was very much in keeping with Wils' ideas. In 1918 he signed the “First Manifesto” alongside Theo van Doesburg, Robert van 't Hoff , Vilmos Huszàr , Anthony Kok , Piet Mondriaan and Georges Vantongerloo and is therefore considered to be a co-founder of the de Stijl Group. De Stijl became a loose artists' association, in whose magazine Wils initially participated intensively, but soon turned increasingly to the magazine Het bouwbedrijf , where he eventually became editor. It is probably thanks to this fact that van Doesburg was able to publish extensively there. But soon there were disagreements and arguments between Wils and van Doesburg, which increasingly endangered their friendship and cooperation. Van Doesburg wanted to forbid Wils to publish in other magazines, especially in Levende Kunst - a paper he saw as direct competition to de Stijl . Nonetheless, Wils published “De nieuwe bouwkunst. Bij het werk van Frank Lloyd Wright. ”(The new architecture, seen through the work of Frank Lloyd Wright), followed by further publications in this and other papers.

De Dubbele Sleutel in Woerden

In 1918 Wils was commissioned to plan the De Dubbele Sleutel hotel-café in Woerden , in which he implemented the ideas of a geometrically abstract, "ascetic" architectural style and puristic functionality, which he had van Doesburg emphasize with a color concept. The building is considered an exemplary example of the early art theories of the de Stijl group.

The situation between the friends escalated in 1919 when van Doesburg publicly complained on the one hand that Wils had not adequately rewarded him given the value of his artistic participation in the De Dubbele Sleutel building project and, on the other hand , wanted to definitely forbid him from publishing outside de Stijl . As a result, Wils withdrew from Van Doesberg in 1919 and ended his active membership in the group de Stijl . Nevertheless, in July 1920 he and the de Stijl artists took part in the La Section d'Or ( Golden Section ) exhibition organized by the Haagsche Kunstkring , where he won a gold medal.

According to Wils' memory, the final break with van Doesburg only occurred after the construction of the Olympic stadium around 1928. “He wanted to rule us and play dictatorship”, he wrote in 1965 in a letter to Hendrik Theo Wijdeveld, editor of Wendingen magazine .

Wils and Eileen Gray

When Eileen Gray took part in an exhibition of French designers in Amsterdam in 1922, and her “Room for Monte Carlo” was not well received, she met Wils, who showed interest in her work, and began an exchange of letters with her. As a homage to his ideals, she designed a two-tone - ivory and black - table made of asymmetrically distributed vertical and horizontal surfaces of different sizes, which in its construction and geometric structural elements is reminiscent of Gerrit Rietveld's "red-blue" chair from 1918. Wils put Gray in touch so that in July 1923 the Dutch magazine Bouwkundig Weekblad could present an article about her work. In the same year a group of Dutch architects organized an exhibition in Paris, in which Wils participated alongside van Doesburg, van Eesteren, Oud and Rietveld and for which he brought Gray. In June 1924 , an article about Gray's work was published in a special issue of the trade journal de Wendingen by Wils and Jean Badovici , a Romanian architecture critic living in Paris.

Association work: Freemasonry

An important factor in Wils' life was his membership in a Masonic lodge . From around 1916 he became interested in hidden geometry (through which unsolved, puzzling phenomena can be explained not only in art and high-ranking works, such as by Raphael, Dürer, Cranach, Rembrandt or Vermeer, but creation as such should be understood. ), for hermetics and other "secret sciences". Wils was not the only one from the de Stijl group who was influenced by the theosophical philosopher Matthieu Schoenmaekers and the ideas of the Dutch mathematician Jan Brouwer , who represented “positive mysticism” and “the teaching of plastic mathematics on a Neoplatonic basis”. On April 29, 1929, Wils was accepted as an apprentice to the L'Union Frédéric lodge in The Hague, two years later he became a journeyman and on March 4, 1932 a master craftsman. He remained a member of the lodge until his death, only from 1955 to 1961 he was also a member of the Lodge de Vlammende Ster .

Together with the architects Wegerif and Baanders, Wils had a great influence on the establishment of the Masonic Foundation Ritus en Tempelbouw, which was launched on June 21, 1931.

plant

Wils (center) in front of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam on July 30, 1928 after receiving the award for the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam

Other important projects were the “Papaverhof” residential complex in The Hague, built from 1920 to 1922, an office building for the Centrale Onderlinge Bedrijfsvereniging voor Ziekteverzekering at Van Alkemadelaan 700 in The Hague, 1933 to 1935 and the Amsterdam cinema “City” on the Leidseplein from 1935 until 1936. His most important project, however, was the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, designed for the 1928 Olympic Games , for which he was awarded the gold medal in the 1928 architecture art competition .

Social housing: Papaverhof Den Haag

"A pinnacle of modern urban residential architecture in the Netherlands, its one of the first examples of the revolution that took place in Dutch architecture around 1920."

- Freijsier

Bruynzeel factory in Zaandam

In 1920, Wils received the order from Cornelis Bruynzeel to plan the new factory building for his SA Hollandsche Deurenfabriek C. Bruynzeel and Sons in Zaandam . The wood processing factory was the first larger company that wanted to use the possibilities of the new seaport and the improved transport connections that it created. Piet Zwart (1885–1964) made a perspective drawing of the plans, one of which was in color, from which the unusual color scheme can be seen: the facades in an indefinable yellow-brown-ocher tone, the entrances and window frames painted cobalt blue and the window frames green. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 12, 1920 and just a year later the facility, consisting of various factory buildings, an office building, warehouse, caretaker's apartment and ancillary room, was ready for occupancy. In 1947 and 1956, Wils designed conversions and extensions to the complex, specifically the construction of a canteen building and a few garages as well as the expansion of the office building.

Olympic Stadium Amsterdam

The Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam

The Olympic Games were held in Amsterdam in 1928. The Olympic Stadium was specially built for the occasion.

The main entrance to the stadium is marked by a slender tower on which the Olympic flame blazed, which was lit for the first time at these games. Within the closed, conventional brick facade, Wils selected modern materials and constructions based on the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wrights, so that the inside and outside are characterized by a strong contrast. The functional reinforced concrete skeleton structure only comes into its own on the inside. For the construction, Wils won the gold medal in the art competition that was still held at the time on the occasion of the Olympic Games.

After the Olympic Games ended, the stadium was initially an important asset for the city of Amsterdam. It was used extensively as an open-air arena for soccer games, bike races and hockey games, but also for the Queen's birthday and pop festivals. Over time, however, interest waned and the stadium fell into disrepair. From 1996 it was extensively renovated by the architects van Stigt , the grandstand extension that took place in 1937 was removed and the building was largely restored to its original state and converted as a meeting place for sports and cultural events, which also houses offices and private apartments.

Interior

Wils was also active in interior design ; The Berssenbrugge photographic studio from 1921 is one of his most important works in this field . He carried out this project together with the painter Vilmos Huszár . It is considered a leading example of a strictly factual, constructive solution for the room, which forms a suitable setting for the people staying in it.

Buildings (selection)

Four buildings by Wils in the Amsterdam cityscape, v. l. To right : Olympic Stadium (partly), marathon gate, northern and southern Citroën building (partly). View from 2007

• 1912: Car workshop in Alkmaar
• 1916: Homestead in Winschoten
• 1916–1920: Chapel of the Reformed Congregation in Nieuw-Lekkerland
• 1919: Pavilion in Groningen
• 1919–1922: Papaverhof , Daal en Berg in The Hague
• 1920/1921: Factory of the Bruynzeel company in Zaandam
• 1918/1919: Hotel-Café De Dubbele Sleutel in Woerden
• 1926: Korsten department store (design not carried out), Koningsplein in Amsterdam
• 1926–1928: Olympic Stadium , Stadionplein in Amsterdam
• 1929–1931: Citroën building , Stadionplein in Amsterdam
• 1930–1931: OLVEH office building (demolished), Piet Heinplein in The Hague
• 1933–1935: Office building for the Centrale Onderlinge Bedrijfsvereniging voor Ziekteverzekering , Van Alkemadelaan 700 in The Hague
• 1934/1935: Centrale Onderlinge , Van Alkemadelaan 700 in The Hague
• 1934/1935: City-Theater , Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 15–19, Amsterdam (with Oscar Rosendahl )
• 1939: Keizer Karel Park settlement in Amstelveen
• 1940: Schiedamsevest apartment block in Rotterdam
• 1952: Hotel Bouwes in Zandvoort
• 1959: Citroën Building II , Stadionplein in Amsterdam
• 1963–1969: Bouwes Place in Zandvoort

gallery

• 

  Car workshop in Alkmar from 1912

• 

  Hotel-Café De Dubbele Sleutel in Woerden from 1919

• 

  Papaverhof in The Hague, built 1920–22

• 

  The Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, 1926–1928

• 

  Citroen building in Amsterdam, 1931

• 

  Centrale Onderlinge Bedrijfsvereniging voor Ziekteverzekering , Van Alkemadelaan in The Hague, 1933–1935

• 

  The City Lichtspieltheater in Amsterdam 1935/36

• 

  Schiedamsevest apartment block in Rotterdam

Publications (selection)

• De architectuur van het gebouwtje [...] , in: Architectura, 22nd year, no. 35, 29 August 1914, pp. 269–270. See TU Delft scan 1 and scan 2 .
• Car garage in Alkmaar , in: Bouwkundig Weekblad, Volume 34, No. 11, March 14, 1915, pp. 125–127. See TU Delft scan 1 and scan 2 .
• Club van Haagsche leden van het genootschap A. et A. Verslag over het Vereenigingsjaar 1915 , in: Architectura, Volume 24, No. 13, March 25, 1916, pp. 99-100. See TU Delft scan 1 and scan 2 .
• Voorlichting , in: Architectura, Volume 24, No. 17, April 22, 1916, p. 133. See scan TU Delft .
• Club van Haagsche leden called A. et A. Over beeldhouwwerk. Lezing Willem C. Brouwer , in: Architectura, Volume 24, No. 26, June 24, 1916, pp. 203-205. See TU Delft scan 1 and scan 2 .
• Excursie club van Haagsche leden A. et A. , in: Architectura, Volume 24, No. 29, July 15, 1916, p. 230. See scan TU Delft .
• De figuren van Brouwer aan het department van landbouw, handel en nijverheid , in: Architectura, Volume 24, No. 52, December 23, 1916, p. 401. See scan TU Delft .
• Club van Haagsche led A. et A. Verslag over het Vereenigingsjaar 1916 , in: Architectura, Volume 25, No. 8, February 24, 1917, pp. 52-53. See scan TU Delft .
• De nieuwe bouwkunst , in: De Stijl, 1st year, No. 3, January 1918, pp. 31–33. See Digital Dada Library .
• Symmetry en kultuur , in: De Stijl, 1st year, No. 12, October 1918, pp. 137–140. See Digital Dada Library .
• Jaarbeurs.-Vrede.-Woningnood , in: Het Vaderland, February 28, 1920.
• A couple commemorated over de woning van onzen tijd , in: Het Vaderland, March 6, 1920, p. C.
• Het normalisatierapport , in: Het Vaderland, Volume 52, No. 86, March 27, 1920, p. C.
• De stad als kunstwerk , in: Het Vaderland, May 4, 1920, avondblad, p. B2.
• Het Stadswoonhuis in Nederland gedurende de laatste 25 years, door JW Leijman, BI Martinus Nijhoff, 's-Gravenhage, 1920 , in: Het Vaderland, 28 July 1920, p. A.
• De nieuwe woonwijken , in: Het Vaderland, Volume 52, No. 23, August 21, 1920: avondblad, p. A1.
• Het gebouw der Handelmaatschappij , in: Het Vaderland, September 15, 1920, avondblad, p. A2.
• Het gebouw der Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij , in: Het Vaderland, Volume 52, No. 266, September 25, 1920, p. A.
• Socialisatie - Normalisatie , in: Het Vaderland, October 2, 1920, avondblad, p. 2.
• Handel, verkeerswezen en bouwkunst , in: Het Vaderland, October 7, 1920, avondblad, p. B2.
• Het Woonhuis. Deel 1. - Zijn bouw. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1922.
• Het Woonhuis. Deel 2. - Indeeling en inrichting. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1923.
• Prijsvraag sportpark , in: Architectura, Volume 27, No. 4, January 27, 1923, p. 36. See scan TU Delft .
• Steun aan Oostenrijksche architecten , in: Architectura, Volume 27, No. 17, April 28, 1923: pp. 91–92. See TU Delft scan 1 and scan 2 .
• Veranderde stadsbeelden in Den Haag , in: Het Vaderland, October 22, 1923, p. A1.
• De Jubileum-bouwkunsttentoonstelling te Amsterdam , in: Het Vaderland, September 15, 1923, p. B2.
• Schoonheiscommissies III. Antwoord van Jan Wils , in: Bouwkundig Weekblad, 45th year, no. 5, February 2, 1924, p. 63. See scan TU Delft .
• Tentoonstelling Bouwkunst en Kunstnijverheid in the Haagschen Kunstkring , in: Het Vaderland, April 25, 1924, p. A1.
• De Bescherming van Buitenmuren bij Platafdakking , Het Bouwbedrijf, 1st year, No. July 1, 1924.
• Na het Stedebouwcongres. De noodzaak van gewestelijke uitbreidingsplannen , in: Het Vaderland, July 19, 1924, p. A1.
• De verbreeding van de 1e van den Boschstraat. Geen verkeersbelang en architectonisch een misgreep , in: Het Vaderland, September 7, 1924, p. A1.
• Zoomin van een huis een goed oordeel gevormd kan sein (...) , in: Het Vaderland, March 5, 1925, p. A1.
• Het ambachts onderwijs. Naar aanleiding van de Tentoonstelling 2de Ambachtsschool-de la Reystraat , Het Vaderland, April 6, 1925, p. A1.
• De Haagsche Havenplannen en Voorgurg's landelijke schoonheid , in: Het Vaderland, December 3, 1925, p. A1.
• Buildings in areas for gymnastics, games and sports. Handleiding voor den bouw, den aanleg en de inrichting. (Scharroo, PW en Jan Wils (1925)), Amsterdam: Ahrend.
• Dr. HP Berlage. 1856-21 Febr. 1926 , in: Het Vaderland, 20 February 1926, p. A1.

References and comments

1. ↑ ^{a b} van Bergeijk, p. 12
2. ↑ van Bergeijk, p. 7
3. ^ Van Bergeijk, p. 17
4. ↑ van Bergeijk, p. 17 f.
5. ^ Van Bergeijk, p. 18
6. ↑ The contemporary enrollment registers of the Technical University of Delft can be found in the publicly accessible Algemeen Rijksarchief (ARA 03.12.08.04, inventory no. 70) in The Hague, where they are freely accessible.
7. ^ Van Bergeijk, p. 17
8. ^ NRC - Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant of June 7, 1912, p. 2
9. ↑ Bouwkundig Weekblad , 34th year, no. 11 of March 14, 1914, p. 127, [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Dutch)  
10. ↑ van Bergeijk, p. 16
11. ↑ van Bergeijk, pp. 23-26
12. ↑ van Bergeijk, p. 25
13. ^ Jury report from 1918 [2]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 26.  
14. ↑ van Bergeijk, p. 31
15. ^ JAN Patijn, H. Evers, HP Berlage, DF Tersteeg, LN Holsnoer: Jury report. Prijsvraag tot verschraaiing Stationsplein te Leeuwarden , Bouwkundig Weekblad of April 20, 1918, pp. 97-99. Available online at the library of the TU Delft: [3]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , [4]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
16. ↑ De Stijl , Volume 2, Number 1, November 1918, pp. 2/3. Available online via the Digital Dada Library .
17. ↑ Architectural Excursions, p. 50
18. ↑ Freijser, p. 59
19. ↑ The letter is in the Wils archive of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, see also van Bergeijk, p. 32
20. ↑ Charlotte Kerner: The Nonconformist: the life story of the architect and designer Eileen Gray . Beltz and Gelberg, Weinheim 2002, ISBN 3-407-80873-9
21. ↑ Volker Ritters: The Grail in the Secret Language of Hidden Geometry. ISBN 3833439661 .
22. ^ Hanno-Walter Kruft: History of the architectural theory: From antiquity to the present. ISBN 340634903X . P. 437
23. ↑ http://www.ritusentempelbouw.nl/
24. ^ Wolfram Hagspiel: Cologne and its Jewish architects. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-7616-2294-0 , p. 350 f.

literature

• Herman van Bergeijk: Jan Wils 1891-1972. De Stijl en verder. Uitgeverij 010, 2007. ISBN 978-90-6450-567-6 , partly available online from ( PDF ) (Dutch)
• Victor Freijser, Jaap Franso: De stijl van Jan Wils: restauratie van de Papaverhof. Afdeling Verkeer en Vervoer, Openbare Werken en Monumentenzorg, 1989. ISBN 9-0731-660-12 (Dutch)
• Hans Ibelings: Dutch Architecture of the 20th Century. Prestel 1995. ISBN 3-7913-1599-4
• K. Klemmer: Master of Modernity: Jan Wils (1891-1972): A border crosser between tradition and modernity. in: Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, 11/1991, pp. 84–86 (German)
• Donald Langmead, Donald Leslie Johnson, Niels Luning Prak: Architectural Excursions: Frank Lloyd Wright, Holland and Europe. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30567-6 (English)

Web links

Commons : Jan Wils (architect)  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Jan Wils in the catalog of the German National Library
• Jan Wils (architect). In: arch INFORM .
• Architecture network (Dutch)
• Historical Dutch magazines, publications by and about Jan Wils