The New Objectivity. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt
30/09/2021.
[Rotterdam] Netherlands
metalocus, RAMIRO ISAURRALDE
metalocus, RAMIRO ISAURRALDE
Dutch modernity knew how to take the main aspects of synchronous artistic and architectural movements, both local and international, to create a new construction tradition that, even with some contextual exhaustion along the way, is still in force and has a great presence in Dutch architectural imagination.
The New Dutch Objectivity (Nieuwe Zakelijkheid or Nieuwe Bouwen) had clear inheritances from the Deutscher Werkbund, the Neue Sachlichkeit, Gropius's Bauhaus, Le Corbusier, the Chicago School and of course the avant-gardes (the latter, particularly, due to migrations). towards this new movement of a large part of De Stijl's architects) and left a very high number of architectural works of spatial quality and relevance in their context, including the one that motivates this article: The Van Nelle factory, by the architects Johannes Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlugt.
This work from the mid-1920s marked a before and after in terms of the role of modern Dutch architecture on the world scene and laid the foundations for Rotterdam to begin to position itself as the preferred city for architectural experimentation in the country.
The New Dutch Objectivity (Nieuwe Zakelijkheid or Nieuwe Bouwen) had clear inheritances from the Deutscher Werkbund, the Neue Sachlichkeit, Gropius's Bauhaus, Le Corbusier, the Chicago School and of course the avant-gardes (the latter, particularly, due to migrations). towards this new movement of a large part of De Stijl's architects) and left a very high number of architectural works of spatial quality and relevance in their context, including the one that motivates this article: The Van Nelle factory, by the architects Johannes Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlugt.
This work from the mid-1920s marked a before and after in terms of the role of modern Dutch architecture on the world scene and laid the foundations for Rotterdam to begin to position itself as the preferred city for architectural experimentation in the country.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Photograph courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Construction process. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Construction process. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Construction process. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Construction process. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Construction process. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Construction process. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Construction process. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Photograph by Ko Hon Chiu Vincent.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Photograph by Ko Hon Chiu Vincent.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Photograph by Ko Hon Chiu Vincent.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Photograph by Ko Hon Chiu Vincent.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Photograph by Ko Hon Chiu Vincent.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Photograph by Ko Hon Chiu Vincent.
Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Photograph by Ko Hon Chiu Vincent.
Aerial view. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt.
Ground floor plan. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt.
Elevation. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt.
Elevation. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt.
Third floor plan and sections. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt.
Section. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt.
Axonometric. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt.
Axonometric. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt.
Axonometric. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt.
Model. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Model. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Model. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Model. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Model. Van Nelle Fabriek by Brinkman & Van der Vlugt. Courtesy of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
With important precedents in the field of local modern architecture such as Berlage and his disciple Pieter Oud, the studio Brinkman and Van der Vlugt built the Van Nelle tobacco, tea and coffee factory in the northwest of Rotterdam between 1925 and 1930, which quickly became it would become a manifesto of the modern and functionalist culture of the interwar period.
The work of the Rotterdam-based studio, which also had the collaboration of Mart Stam, another renowned architect of that period, relied on the recently acquired labor rights and the new spatial searches of architecture to create a different industrial model, without basements, favoring ventilation and natural lighting, with open spaces and an exhaustive programmatic study that tried to optimize the operation of the factory, without detriment to the human element.
The work of the Rotterdam-based studio, which also had the collaboration of Mart Stam, another renowned architect of that period, relied on the recently acquired labor rights and the new spatial searches of architecture to create a different industrial model, without basements, favoring ventilation and natural lighting, with open spaces and an exhaustive programmatic study that tried to optimize the operation of the factory, without detriment to the human element.
"The serenity of the place is total. Everything opens to the outside. And this is of enormous significance to all who are working inside, on the eight floors. (...) The Van Nelle cigar factory in Rotterdam, a creation of the modern era, has removed from the word 'proletarian' all its previous connotations of hopelessness. And this deviation from the selfish instinct of property towards an appreciation for collective action leads to the happiest of results: the phenomenon of personal participation in each and every phase of the human race."
Le Corbusier on the Van Nelle factory 1
The balance between work and the well-being of the workers is crucial in the concept of the Van Nelle factory. Located in a predominantly natural environment, with large windows that offered infinite perspectives to the workers and rest and leisure areas designed within the project, they clearly show the innovative approach of the proposal with its focus on the well-being of the operator, through So much so that, if it weren't for the article's synchronous cut, it could be included without major qualms among our selection of 10 buildings that change the way of working.
The building is built entirely with an independent reinforced concrete structure, faithful to the precepts in vogue of that time, with columns of flared capitals, projected by the engineer in charge of the work, J.G. Wiebenga. This structure also responds to the programmatic requirements of the factory, which should house large machinery and required ample open plan spaces to do so.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the work are the slender glass bridges (previously mobile) that levitate over the internal streets of the complex to connect the production area with the storage and dispatch areas. But these connections are not merely a morphological decision, the Vitruvian beauty had relegated its position in front of the exalted modern function, and the main task of the catwalks was to move the merchandise produced from one area to another employing conveyor belts to gain efficiency in the process.
"The factory (…) would be one of the greatest examples of this extremely rational and functional architecture, in which the form exclusively celebrates technical precision. The radical functionality of the volumes and walkways predominates, the totally free floors with variable heights depending on the type of production process, the drastic and repetitively transparent facades (...) In all these cases, architecture is interpreted as a container of activities, as a summation of facilities, as a machine that absorbs energy from the environment, as a measurement problem, as a definition of standards. Rationalist architecture starts from the enthronement of the method. All precipitation, intuition, improvisation has to be replaced by systematicity, precise calculations and mass-produced materials."
Josep María Montaner 2
Although its functions ceased in 1990, eight years later recovery works began in order to postulate the building as UNESCO heritage, which helped to preserve its facilities completely and finally obtain the degree of protection of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.
Currently, the building has become a kind of co-working space and houses a significant number of offices (in addition to a museum), among which is the headquarters of BroekBakema, an architecture studio that had its origin in that of Brinkman and Van der Vlugt and who was in charge of its last major refurbishment in 2002, as well as overseeing the factory by UNESCO since 2018.
The work is until today a benchmark of modern architecture and has been awarded on different occasions with recognitions such as the A label in sustainable management of historic buildings, or the Golden Green Key.
NOTES.-
1.- FRAMPTON, Kenneth (1987) Modern Architecture: A Critical History. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, pp. 132-143.
2.- MONTANER, Josep María (1997) La modernidad superada. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, Page 61.
2.- MONTANER, Josep María (1997) La modernidad superada. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, Page 61.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-
- BAKEMA, J.B. (1968) L.C. van der Vlugt. Art and architecture in the Netherlands. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff.
- GARCÍA GARCÍA, Rafael (1995) Nueva Objetividad en Holanda 1923-1940. Cuadernos de notas. Madrid: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
- FRAMPTON, Kenneth (1987) Modern Architecture: A Critical History. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
- MONTANER, Josep María (1997) La modernidad superada. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
- GARCÍA GARCÍA, Rafael (1995) Nueva Objetividad en Holanda 1923-1940. Cuadernos de notas. Madrid: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
- FRAMPTON, Kenneth (1987) Modern Architecture: A Critical History. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
- MONTANER, Josep María (1997) La modernidad superada. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.
More information
Architects
Johannes Brinkman. Leendert van der Vlugt.
Project team
Lead architects.- Johannes Brinkman, Leendert Van der Vlugt. Associated architect.- Mart Stam. Renovation architects.- Wessel de Jonge, Broekbakema.
Collaborators
Civil engineer.- J.G. Wiebenga.
Client
Van Nelle company.- Kees van der Leeuw.
Owner
Area
Built area.- 60,000 sqm.
Dates
Start date.- 1925. End date.- 1930. Renovation.- 2000-2002. 2018.
Location
Van Nelleweg 1, 3044 BC Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Photography
Ko Hon Chiu Vincent. NAI Collection Database - Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Johannes Andreas Brinkman. Leendert Cornelis van der Vlugt. Brinkman and Van der Vlugt
The Brinkman and Van der Vlugt architectural office, one of the most important and successful in the Netherlands between the wars, was the primary exponent of Nieuwe Bouwen. Johannes Brinkman handled the technical aspects and left the design largely to Leendert van der Vlugt. In the early days, the firm’s main client was the coffee, tea and tobacco company Van Nelle. Brinkman and Van der Vlugt designed its iconic factory building in Rotterdam as well as sites in Leiden and Utrecht. They also designed homes for the company’s directors, including the Van der Leeuw and Sonneveld houses.
Johannes Andreas Brinkman (Rotterdam, 1902)
Son of architect Michiel Brinkman, he began working in his office while studying at the Technical University of Delft. After his death in 1925 he continued his study, incorporating Leendert Cornelis van der Vlugt. With him he formed an active studio between 1925 and 1936 - the date of Van der Vlugt's death -, which on occasions also collaborated with Willem van Tijen. Subsequently, Brinkman partnered with Johannes Hendrik van der Broek.
Brinkman and Van der Vlugt's main work was the Van Nelle tobacco, tea and coffee factory in Rotterdam (1926-1929), to which were added the headquarters of the Theosophical Union in Amsterdam (1925-1926) and the headquarters of Van Nelle in Leiden (1925-1927), as well as several residential buildings: the Van der Leeuw villa (1927-1928), the Sonneveld house (1932-1933) and the Boevé house (1934), all in Rotterdam. Another emblematic work of his was the Feyenoord stadium in Rotterdam-South (1935-1936). They also designed a telephone booth (1931) which over time has become an iconic element of the Dutch urban landscape.
With Van Tijen they built the Bergpolder building in Rotterdam in 1934, a ten-story housing complex with a steel structure and wooden walls and floors.
Leendert Cornelis van der Vlugt (Rotterdam, 1894)
Van der Vlugt was a Dutch architect who studied between 1910 and 1915 at the Academy of Fine Arts and Technical Sciences in Rotterdam. After several years of work in different architectural firms, in 1919 he settled on his own account.
He designed houses in Beukelsdijk, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (1921), the Higher Technical School and the Industrial School (1922), both in Groningen.
From 1925 he worked with Johannes Andreas Brinkman (1902-1949), son of the architect Michiel Brinkman, who had studied at the Higher Technical School in Delft. In the shared office Brinkman was in charge of organizational and technical matters and Van der Vlugt of architectural matters.
In the first stage of their collaboration they built the Theosophical Temple in Amsterdam (1927) and the Van der Leeuw House in Rotterdam (1928-1929). A wide window strip crosses the smooth front of the building and the garden facade, with a two-storey greenhouse, is fully glazed.
Later they built several houses, such as the De Bruyn house in Schiedam (1930-1931) and the Sonneveld house in Rotterdam (1929-1933). Despite its dimensions, the Van Nelle tobacco factory in Rotterdam (1926-1930), also built under the International Style sign, is light and not heavy due to its transparent mirror-glass curtain wall facade suspended in front of the metallic structure. A circular glass roof houses a cafeteria. The facade of the office building, accessed by a glass corridor, is arched.
The houses of the Bergpolder discoidal blue-collar skyscraper in Rotterdam (1933-1934, in collaboration with Willem van Tijen) open onto galleries. The stairs and the elevator are located behind the side façade, fully glazed, existing in the entrance part. On the death of Van der Vlugt, Brinkman worked in collaboration with Johannes Hendrik van der Broek.
Mart Stam
Mart Stam (1899) was a Dutch architect and industrial designer born in Purmerend. After studying drawing in Amsterdam, he worked between 1919 and 1924 with Marinus Jan Granpré Molière in Rotterdam, Max Taut and Hans Poelzig in Berlin, and Karl Moser in Zurich. In ABC magazine. Beiträge zum Bauen, edited in collaboration with Hans Schmidt, he published articles on design, architecture and furniture and also perspective drawings of functionalist buildings.
Between 1925 and 1928, while working in the law firms of Johannes Andreas Brinkman and Leendert Comelis van der Vlugt, he collaborated on the Van Nelle tobacco factory project in Rotterdam (1925-1930). Around the same time he accepted an invitation from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to build a rigidly articulated group of semi-detached houses with a roof terrace for the Weissenhof housing estate in Stuttgart (1927). However, his steel tube chair and accessories designed for the occasion did not offer the elastic effect of the Mies suspension chair. From the same dates are the Hellerhof housing estate in Frankfurt am Main (1928-1932) and a nursing home in the same city (1928-1930), a two-story white building, with an H-shaped plan and largely glazed on the side. South, because while the functionalist dwellings had a north-south orientation to optimize the incidence of the sun in the morning and in the afternoon, Stam conceived an asylum adapted to the other demands of use.
In 1930 Stam emigrated to the Soviet Union in the company of Ernst May and other architects; there he worked as a town planner and designed, among other things, a plan for Magnltogorsk. When he found that his visionary ideas were practically uninteresting in the Soviet Union, he returned with his wife Lotte Stam-Beese to Holland in 1934.
Between 1939 and 1953 he directed the training schools in Amsterdam, Dresden, and East Berlin and in the 1950s he built the Geilustreerde Pers office building in Amsterdam (1957-1959). From 1925 he worked with Johannes Andreas Brinkman (1902-1949), son of the architect Michiel Brinkman, who had studied at the Higher Technical School in Delft. Stam passed away on February 21, 1986, at the age of 87 in Goldbach.
Between 1925 and 1928, while working in the law firms of Johannes Andreas Brinkman and Leendert Comelis van der Vlugt, he collaborated on the Van Nelle tobacco factory project in Rotterdam (1925-1930). Around the same time he accepted an invitation from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to build a rigidly articulated group of semi-detached houses with a roof terrace for the Weissenhof housing estate in Stuttgart (1927). However, his steel tube chair and accessories designed for the occasion did not offer the elastic effect of the Mies suspension chair. From the same dates are the Hellerhof housing estate in Frankfurt am Main (1928-1932) and a nursing home in the same city (1928-1930), a two-story white building, with an H-shaped plan and largely glazed on the side. South, because while the functionalist dwellings had a north-south orientation to optimize the incidence of the sun in the morning and in the afternoon, Stam conceived an asylum adapted to the other demands of use.
In 1930 Stam emigrated to the Soviet Union in the company of Ernst May and other architects; there he worked as a town planner and designed, among other things, a plan for Magnltogorsk. When he found that his visionary ideas were practically uninteresting in the Soviet Union, he returned with his wife Lotte Stam-Beese to Holland in 1934.
Between 1939 and 1953 he directed the training schools in Amsterdam, Dresden, and East Berlin and in the 1950s he built the Geilustreerde Pers office building in Amsterdam (1957-1959). From 1925 he worked with Johannes Andreas Brinkman (1902-1949), son of the architect Michiel Brinkman, who had studied at the Higher Technical School in Delft. Stam passed away on February 21, 1986, at the age of 87 in Goldbach.
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