Robert van 't Hoff

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Robert van 't Hoff (* 1887 in Rotterdam ; † April 25, 1979 in New Milton , South England ) was a Dutch architect. He was a member of the De Stijl artist group from 1917 to 1919 .

education

Robert van 't Hoff received his architectural training in England. From 1906 he attended the School of Art in Birmingham and also worked in the studios of English architects. From 1911 to 1914 he lived in London and attended courses from the Architectural Association . He got to know artists of the English avant-garde and came into contact with socially utopian ideas.

At the same time, the first independent projects were created. From 1911 he built a house in the English country house style of the turn of the century for his parents in Huis ter Heide . From 1913 to 1914 the John House was built in London for the painter Augustus John . In June and July 1914 van 't Hoff went on a study trip to America to get to know Frank Lloyd Wright and his buildings.

Major works

Villa Henny
Villa Verloop , Huis ter Heide. 1915-1916.

In January 1915 he settled in Huis ter Heide . There he built his two most important buildings: the Villa Verloop (completed in 1915) and the Villa Henny (completed in 1916). The latter, with its strictly cubic-linear shapes and its concrete skeleton construction, is an important pioneer of functionalist modern architecture.

In 1917 the architect came into contact with Theo van Doesburg and other artists involved in De Stijl . He published a total of five articles in De Stijl magazine in 1918 and 1919 . But as early as 1919, political differences led to a falling out with Doesburg and to leaving the group. In 1920 he completely withdrew from the art business.

Exhibitions

  • 1967 - Solo exhibition, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reyner Banham: The Revolution of Architecture. Theory and design in the first machine age . Rowohlts Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1964, p. Description of Fig. 13 .