Façades of The Hague #145

Double villa Seinpostduin corner Zeekant, Scheveningen, along the beach.

The building was designed by the beginning of the 20^th century by architect Johan Mutters (1858-1930).

Mutters was a fashionable modern architect, interior designer and urban planner of the Art Nouveau era, which is quite obvious in this double villa.

There are more stylish buildings designed by him in The Hague.

Later on he would design in a more Rationalist style.

This particular building was meant to be a hotel (which it partly still is), as part of the development of Scheveningen, turning from a poor fishing village into a posh seaside resort and spa around the turn of the century.

There are influences of half-timbered houses and chalets from Germany to render it a holiday feel.

The building is a municipal architectural monument.

Today it has to compete with horrible monstrosities that seem to have been designed to scare off any evil intrusion from overseas.

© Villa Next Door 2022

All pictures were taken in June 2017.

Bertus Pieters

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Façades of The Hague #144

Buildings with apartments and studios, north façade of the so-called Lissabonplein (Lisbon Square), Kazernestraat.

The square connects the former 18^th century courtyard called Het Lissabon (The Lisbon) near Denneweg, with Kazernestraat.

The houses were built mainly in the 1930s with later modifications and additions. It is a particularly peaceful part of the city centre, with arts and crafts studios.

The name Lissabon probably derives from Sephardic Jews who used to live around the former courtyard.

© Villa Next Door 2021

All pictures were taken in March 2017.

Bertus Pieters

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Façades of The Hague #126

Buildings with apartments and studios, south façade of the so-called Lissabonplein (Lisbon Square), Kazernestraat.

The square connects the former 18^th century courtyard called Het Lissabon (The Lisbon) near Denneweg, with Kazernestraat.

The houses were built mainly in the 1930s with later modifications and additions.

It is a particularly peaceful part of the city centre, with arts and crafts studios.

The name Lissabon probably derives from Sephardic Jews who used to live around the former courtyard.

© Villa Next Door 2021

All pictures were taken in March 2017.

Bertus Pieters

Façades of The Hague from #72 onwards: https://villanextdoor2.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/

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Façades of The Hague #143

Building with high recesses with steep stairs so characteristic of The Hague, Copernicuslaan corner Valkenboskade.

It was built in 1915 for middle class labourers and shops in a decorative style related to Art Nouveau. Originally, the recesses for the stairwells were crowned with stepped gables.

For the construction of the entire district, the border with the then independent municipality of Loosduinen was shifted to the southwest.

© Villa Next Door 2022

All pictures were taken in March 2017, except for the last picture which was taken in March 2020.

Bertus Pieters

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Façades of The Hague #142

Double villa Petra and Pepita, Nieuwe Parklaan.  

The house is said to be built around 1910, but on a photograph of 1903 it is clearly already there.

The façade has had exuberant shiny yellow decorations, which are still partly visible on the top left side.

The double villa may have been built for rich families as a summer house (Nieuwe Parklaan isn’t far from the beach).

© Villa Next Door 2022

All pictures were taken in March 2017.

Bertus Pieters

Façades of The Hague from #72 onwards: https://villanextdoor2.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/

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Façades of The Hague #141

There is a monastery in the centre of The Hague.

While in the Roman Catholic southern cities of the Netherlands this may seem quite common, it is a bit unexpected in the centre of the residence of the government and royal family of a traditionally Protestant nation.

Yet there is one at Oude Molstraat.  

As can be read from the plaque, the monastery was inhabited by nuns, the Sisters of Charity, from the Roman Catholic revival in the 19^th century until 1988.

Today the Brothers of Saint John are living, working and praying in the building.

Behind this particular façade the monks are brewing and selling beer.

Beer brewing has been a traditional source of income for monasteries stemming from times when normal water wasn’t always safe to drink, and when a fine pitcher of beer would give the right base for a hearty meal.

© Villa Next Door 2021

All pictures were taken in March 2017.

Bertus Pieters

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Façades of The Hague #140

Façade of a residential building, Koninginnegracht.

The house was built in 1938 in late New Hague School style and is standing out in between the somewhat dull late 19^th century façades of the block.

© Villa Next Door 2021

All pictures were taken in March 2017.

Bertus Pieters

Façades of The Hague from #72 onwards: https://villanextdoor2.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/

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Façades of The Hague #139

Picnic site along the cycling path from Oude Waalsdorperweg to Meijendel.

One of the most attractive features of The Hague are its dune areas north and west of the city.

Most of it is for recreation, water purification and nature conservation.

However the days when one could freely roam the dunes have long gone.

Conservation and water purification cannot withstand the population pressure of a city, so large parts are no-go areas for the common visitor.

Hence this picnic spot is cosily positioned in between the cycling path and a line of barbed wire.

In the mean time the original somewhat Spartan and basic wooden benches and table have been replaced by relatively more luxurious ones.

As you can see in the last three, more recent pictures, table and benches are now sported by weathering steel, designed in a postmodern style with the trademark toad of the water treatment company.

It leaves its logo everywhere, like a dog pissing in every corner.

© Villa Next Door 2021

All pictures were taken in March 2017, except for the last three pictures which were taken in October 2021.

Bertus Pieters

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Façades of The Hague #138

Seven blocks of flats along 2^de Sweelinckstraat, Lübeckstraat, Valeriusstraat, Stadhouderslaan and Stadhoudersplantsoen.

Designed by Jan Wils (1891-1972), they were built in the 1950s.

The German occupation left deep scars in The Hague.

The building by the Germans of the Atlantic Wall (the Antlantikwall) along the western European coast left one of the most significant scars still visible today.

Parts of the western suburbs of the city were demolished by order of the Germans for the building of the defensive wall.

Not just the houses were destroyed, social and suburban structures were erased too.

Part of the project was a deep anti-tank-trench which ran amongst others through the present Stadhoudersplantsoen.

After the Germans left, different plans were made to rebuild the area.

A plan by architect and urban planner Willem Dudok (1884-1974) to restructure the area was taken as the base for renewal.

Dudok, of course, was a famous modern architect in the Netherlands.

Architect of the wonderful and still functioning Hilversum Town Hall, he was also renowned for his achievements in urban planning already before the War.

Dudok however didn’t design any of the new buildings in this area when restructuring post-war The Hague.

Jan Wils was one of the architects who made designs for the new buildings.

Wils, during his long career, started out with Jugenstil.

When he was in his twenties he moved to The Hague where he worked for Hendrik Petrus Berlage, probably the most influential Dutch architect during the Interwar period, and responsible, amongst others, for the design of the (nearby) Gemeentemuseum, now Kunstmuseum.

Through Berlage he discovered the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, which had a great influence on him.

Wright’s work strengthened his idea that man and his surroundings should be central in architecture and not architecture itself.

For a short time he was associated with Theo van Doesburg and De Stijl.

Already before WWII he was engaged in social housing construction and designing residential buildings in general.

As such he is seen as one of the founders of the so-called Nieuwe Haagse School (New Hague School).

Therefore the choice of Wils as one of the architects for the restructuring of this area was obvious.

His low blocks of flats in a lush green area, were a clear modernist break with the original 19^th century idea of chic façades along the street with private backyards and very limited public space.

© Villa Next Door 2021

All pictures were taken in March 2020.

Bertus Pieters

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Façades of The Hague #137

Bridge in Laan van Meerdervoort over the Verversingskanaal (Drain Channel) in between Conradkade and Suezkade, usually called Conradbrug (Conrad Bridge).

In 1937 this bridge was built to give a more solid base for the increasing and heavier car traffic in The Hague’s main western thoroughfare.

In the background Cornerhouse

The bridge was designed by Antoon Pet (1885-1954) who, as a structural engineer and architect, was a civil servant in The Hague from 1919 until 1951.

Right in the background the first floors of Panoramaflat

It is a very robust bridge and at the time it was the biggest bridge (at a hundred feet) in The Hague.

It is still a local landmark, as are the two modernist buildings at the north side of the bridge: Cornerhouse (Jan Grijpma, 1929) and Panoramaflat (Piet Zanstra, 1962).

The bridge is embellished with different features, like a strange place inscribed with MANNEN (MEN), which may remind you of a forgotten war monument, but which are probably the remains of a public toilet. [Scroll down for a reaction by Casper de Weerd]

The bridge has also been provided with some sculptures, which was a fine tradition before WWII.

At the north side is a sculpture by Joop van Lunteren (1882-1958) of a boy with a toy sailboat made of a Dutch clog.

Wooden shoes were still in common use by the time.

A boy making a toy sailboat can be seen as a symbol of human, in particular Dutch and male endeavour.

It adds to the symbolism of the then modern bridge as well.

In the middle of the bridge is a monumental granite sculpture by Dirk Wolbers (1890-1957) called Veilig in’t verkeer (Safe in Traffic).

It represents a mother ready to steer her daughter and son through the busy traffic.

The traffic itself is symbolised by two small toy-like cars.

She stands there as an attractive young mother preparing her children for life in modern traffic in particular and in modern times in general.

As such they cross the bridge towards the future.

As for Wolbers himself: he died in a car crash.

At the south side of the bridge is another sculpture by Van Lunteren, representing a girl with a rabbit.

As a pendant of the boy with the sailboat at the other side, she obviously symbolises feminine compassion with creatures that need our care.

As such the whole bridge has become a symbol of modernity with traditions that have changed as a result of that modernity.

© Villa Next Door 2021

All pictures were taken in March 2017.

Bertus Pieters

Façades of The Hague from #72 onwards: https://villanextdoor2.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/

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