Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, commonly called J. J. P. Oud (9 February 1890 – 5 April 1963) 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 ...
.
His fame began as a follower of the ''
De Stijl
''De Stijl'' (; ), Dutch for "The Style", also known as Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a more narrow sense, the term ''De Stijl'' is used to refer to a body ...
'' movement.
Oud was born in
Purmerend
Purmerend () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and in the region of West Friesland. The city is surrounded by polders, such as the Purmer, Beemster and the Wormer. The city became the t ...
, the son of a tobacco and wine merchant. As a young architect, he was influenced by
Berlage
Hendrik Petrus Berlage (21 February 1856 – 12 August 1934) was a Dutch architect. He is considered one of the fathers of the architecture of the Amsterdam School.
Life and work
Hendrik Petrus Berlage, son of Nicolaas Willem Berlage and A ...
, and studied under
Theodor Fischer
Theodor Fischer (28 May 1862 – 25 December 1938) was a German architect and teacher.
Career
Fischer planned public housing projects for the city of Munich beginning in 1893. He was the joint founder and first chairman of the Deutscher Wer ...
in Munich for a time. He worked together with
W.M. Dudok in
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
, which is where he also met
Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg (, 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nell ...
and became involved with the movement ''
De Stijl
''De Stijl'' (; ), Dutch for "The Style", also known as Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a more narrow sense, the term ''De Stijl'' is used to refer to a body ...
''.
Between 1918 and 1933, Oud became Municipal Housing Architect for Rotterdam. During this period when many laborers were coming to the city, he mostly worked on socially progressive residential projects. This included projects in the areas of Spangen, Kiefhoek and the Witte Dorp.
Oud was one of a number of Dutch architects who attempted to reconcile strict, rational, 'scientific' cost-effective construction technique against the psychological needs and aesthetic expectations of the users. His own answer was to practice 'poetic functionalism'.
![WeissenhofsiedlungJJPOud-pjt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/WeissenhofsiedlungJJPOud-pjt.jpg)
In 1927, he was one of the fifteen architects who contributed to the influential modernist
Weissenhof Estate
The Weissenhof Estate (German: Weißenhofsiedlung) is a housing estate built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, effici ...
exhibition.
In America Oud is perhaps best known for being lauded and adopted by the mainstream modernist movement, then summarily kicked out on stylistic grounds. As of 1932, he was considered one of the four greatest modern architects (along with
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...
and
Le Corbusier), and was prominently featured in
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...
's
International Style exhibition. Johnson maintained a correspondence with Oud, tried to help him get work, commissioned a house for his mother (never built), and sent him socks and bicycle tires.
Speaks, Michael; Hadders, Gerard (ed.): ''Mart Stam’s Trousers: Stories from behind the Scenes of Dutch Moral Modernism''
, 010 Publishers, 1999 In 1945, after the end of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
allowed photographs of Oud's 1941 Shell Headquarters building in The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
to be published in America, the architectural press sarcastically condemned his use of ornament ("embroidery") as contrary to the spirit of modernism.
After World War II, Oud designed the Dutch National War Monument in Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
and the monument of the Military War Cemetery Grebbeberg
Grebbeberg War Cemetery ( nl, Militair Ereveld Grebbeberg) is a Second World War military war grave cemetery, located on the Grebbeberg, a hill east of Rhenen the Netherlands. The cemetery contains 799 military personnel and one civilian who died ...
. By then, he had mostly let go of any ''Stijl'' influences. He continued to take a highly individualistic stance against mainstream modernism. He designed projects such as the Spaarbank in Rotterdam, office-building De Utrecht in Rotterdam and the Children's health-centre in Arnhem (Bio-herstellingsoord).
Oud's brother, Pieter Oud
Pieter Jacobus Oud (5 December 1886 – 12 August 1968) was a Dutch politician of the defunct Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB) party and later co-founder of the Labour Party (PvdA) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) ...
was mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
of Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...
.
Oud died in 1963 at the age of 73 in Wassenaar
Wassenaar (; population: in ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and Dorp (town), town located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, on the western coast of the Netherlands.
An affluent suburb of The ...
.
Chronology of works
* 1906 House in Purmerend
Purmerend () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and in the region of West Friesland. The city is surrounded by polders, such as the Purmer, Beemster and the Wormer. The city became the t ...
.
* 1912 Movie theatre, block of worker housing and small individual houses in Purmerend.
* 1913 - 1914 Small houses in and about Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
.
* 1915 Project for a municipal bath house, unexecuted.
* 1917 House in Katwijk-aan-Zee (collaboration with Kamerlingh Onnes). House in Noordwijkerhout (collaboration with Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg (, 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nell ...
). Project for a row of seaside houses, unexcecuted.
* 1918 Spangen, Blocks I and V, Worker housing in Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...
.
* 1919 Spangen, Blocks VIII and IX. Projects for a factory and a bonded Warehouse, unexcecuted.
* 1920 - 1921 Tuschendijken, Blocks I to IV and VI in Rotterdam.
* 1921 Project for a house in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, unexecuted.
* 1922 Garden Village in Rotterdam at Oud-Mathenesse.
* 1923 Superintendent's office at Oud-Mathenesse, temporary.
* 1925 Café de Unie in Rotterdam
* 1926 Project for Hotel Stiassni in Brno, Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
, unexcecuted. Competition project for Rotterdam Exchange, unexcecuted.
* 1926 - 1927 Worker's Houses at the Hoek of Holland
* 1927 Row of 5 houses, Weissenhof Housing Exposition, Stuttgart.
* 1927 Additions to the villa Allegonda at Katwijk-aan-Zee.
* 1928 - 1930 Kiefhoek Housing Development in Rotterdam.
* 1931 Project for steel apartments in Rotterdam, unexecuted. Project for house in Pinehurst, unexecuted.
* 1933 ''Chair'', Museum de Fundatie
Museum de Fundatie () is a museum for the visual arts in Zwolle, Netherlands. Museum de Fundatie forms part of the Hannema-de Stuers Foundation, to which Kasteel het Nijenhuis in Heino also belongs. Museum de Fundatie possesses a collection of vis ...
in Heino, Netherlands
* 1938-1948 Shell Headquarters, The Hague
* 1942-1957 Spaarbank, Rotterdam
* 1952-1960 Bio-herstellingsoord, Arnhem
* 1954-1961 Officebuilding De Utrecht, Rotterdam
* 1956, National Monument (with sculptor John Raedecker), Dam Square
Dam Square or the Dam () is a town square in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Its notable buildings and frequent events make it one of the best-known and most important locations in the city and the country.
Location and description
...
, Amsterdam
References
Further reading
*Broekhuizen, Dolf, ''De Stijl toen / J.J.P. Oud nu. De bijdrage van architect J.J.P. Oud aan herdenken, herstellen en bouwen in Nederland (1938–1963)'', dissertation University of Groningen, Rotterdam, NAi publishers 2000 ()
*Taverne, Ed, Broekhuizen, Dolf, ''J.J.P. Oud's Shell Building. Design and reception'', Rotterdam: NAi publishers 1995 ()
*Taverne, Ed; Wagenaar, Cor; Vletter, Martien de; Broekhuizen, Dolf (ed.), ''J.J.P. Oud Poetic Functionalist 1890–1963, Complete Works'', Rotterdam: NAi publishers 2001 ()
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oud, Jacobus
Modernist architects
1890 births
1963 deaths
Constructivist architects
International style architects
De Stijl
People from Purmerend
Technical University of Munich alumni
20th-century Dutch architects