Aldo van Eyck (; 16 March 1918 – 14 January 1999) was a Dutch

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. He was one of the most influential protagonists of the architectural movement Structuralism.

Family

He was born in Driebergen,

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, a son of

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or govern ...

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and philosopher Pieter Nicolaas van Eyck or van Eijk and wife Nelly Estelle Benjamins, a woman of Sephardic origin born and raised in

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. His brother was poet, artist and art restorer Robert Floris van Eyck or van Eijk. He was married to Hannie van Rooijen, also an architect. She assisted him in several projects.

Early life and career

His family moved to the United Kingdom in 1919 and he was educated at Sidcot School, Somerset, from 1932 to 1935, after which he finished his secondary school in

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between 1935 and 1938, and went to study at the

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. He graduated in 1942, after which he remained in Switzerland until the end of

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, where he entered the circle of many other avant-garde artists around Carola Giedion-Welcker, wife of

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Sigfried Giedion Sigfried Giedion (sometimes misspelled Siegfried Giedion; 14 April 1888, Prague – 10 April 1968, Zürich) was a Bohemian-born Swiss historian and critic of architecture. His ideas and books, '' Space, Time and Architecture'', and ''Mechani ...

. He taught at the

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Academy of Architecture from 1954 to 1959 and he was a

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at the

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from 1966 to 1984. He also was editor of the architecture magazine ''Forum'' from 1959 to 1963 and in 1967.

Later career

A member of CIAM and then in 1954 a co-founder of " Team 10", Van Eyck lectured throughout Europe and northern America propounding the need to reject Functionalism and attacking the lack of originality in most post-war Modernism. Van Eyck was as co-editor of the Dutch magazine ''Forum'' between 1959 and 1963, alongside Herman Hertzberger and Jaap Bakema. This helped publicise the "Team 10" call for a return to humanism within architectural design. Van Eyck received the

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

Royal Gold Medal The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is gi ...

in 1990. He died at Loenen aan de Vecht, aged 80.

Selected works

* Design for village of Nagele, Noordoostpolder, 1948–1954 * Housing for the Elderly, Slotermeer, Amsterdam, 1951–1952 *

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, Amsterdam, 1955–1960 * Primary Schools, Nagele, Noordoostpolder, 1954–1956 *

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, Amsterdam, 1973–1978 *

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- ESTEC restaurant and conference centre, Noordwijk, 1984–1990

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eyck, Aldo 1918 births 1999 deaths Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne members Delft University of Technology faculty Dutch Jews ETH_Zurich_faculty Jewish architects Van Eyck, Aldo People from Driebergen-Rijsenburg Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Structuralists Wolf Prize in Arts laureates 20th-century Dutch architects