Cornelis ("Kees") Bruynzeel Jr. (February 19, 1900 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 ''"N ...
– August 1. 1980 in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
) was a Dutch businessman, timber merchant and
yachtsman
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
.
Early years
Bruynzeel was the son of Cornelis Bruynzeel Sr., who founded a timber factory in 1897, and Antoinette Lels. He studied 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 of ...
, and took several trips to the United States and Sweden to study progress in automatization and wood manufacturing. In 1920 he became manager of the family's new door factory in
Zaandam
Zaandam () is a city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad, and received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Za ...
. In 1922 he married Titia Verkade, granddaughter of the industrialist
Ericus Gerhardus Verkade.
Bruynzeel Jr. was an avid sailor. He won the
Fastnet race
The Fastnet Race is a biennial offshore yacht race organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club of the United Kingdom with the assistance of the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes and the City of Cherbourg in France.
The race is named after the Fastnet ...
for the
Netherlands
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in 1937 with his
Stephens-designed yawl
A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan), to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put.
As a rig, a yawl is a two masted, fore and aft rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast p ...
''Zeearend'' ("sea eagle", the eagle being the logo of the Bruynzeel company). The Dutch designer
Piet Zwart
Piet Zwart (; 28 May 1885 – 24 September 1977) was a Dutch photographer, typographer, and industrial designer.
Biography
Early life
Piet Zwart was born on May 28, 1885 in Zaandijk. He trained as an architect, and began graphic design proje ...
worked closely with Bruynzeel's father and his brother Willem (he designed their first kitchens) and was involved with the design of the Zeearend as well.
Industry Pioneer
In 1939, when the production had expanded to include floors and kitchens and the threat 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 opposin ...
was causing a decline in the building industry, he considered alternatives and pioneered the development of new timber materials for the production of the Bruynzeel kitchen and for boat construction. Using a newly developed water-resistant synthetic resin glue, Bruynzeel developed a durable three-ply wood, similar to
plywood
Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...
, for the fabrication of external doors. Bruynzeel went on to extend the concept of the modular kitchen and with
E.G. van de Stadt developed the first industrialised boat construction system in the world.
Today Bruynzeel Multipanel Int. B.V., as it was later renamed, is a leading timber company that specialises in
marine and construction timber, with distribution throughout Europe, North America and the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
, amongst others. The Bruynzeel name also lives on as a
shelving
A shelf ( : shelves) is a flat, horizontal plane used for items that are displayed or stored in a home, business, store, or elsewhere. It is raised off the floor and often anchored to a wall, supported on its shorter length sides by brackets ...
brand of the Swedish
Altor Equity Partners
Altor Equity Partners is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and the DACH region.
History
The firm, which is based in Stockholm, Sweden, was founded in 2003 by a te ...
.
South Africa
In 1956 Kees Bruynzeel Jr. moved to South Africa, where he owned and operated a company
Bruply Doors, including a factory at
. Bruynzeel's South African timber operations now comprise
PG Bison and are controlled by Steinhoff Africa.
In 1962, Bruynzeel built a house in
, that was controversial considering the conservative architecture of the time. The roof of the house is shaped like a
hyperbolic paraboloid
In geometry, a paraboloid is a quadric surface that has exactly one axis of symmetry and no center of symmetry. The term "paraboloid" is derived from parabola, which refers to a conic section that has a similar property of symmetry.
Every plane ...
, and is constructed using
teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...
rafter
A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as wooden beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof shingles, roof deck and its associated ...
s and lined with
yellowwood. It was designed by architect
Aart Bijl.
Sailing
Bruynzeel continued sailing and winning races. In the 1937 Fastnet Race "Zeearend" was winner overall.
In the Fastnet 1951 Race, "Zeevalk" wasklasse winner and 2. overall.
"Stormvogel" was first to finish in the 61 Fastnet, the 62 Buenos Aires-Rio race, the 64 Burmuda race, the Sydney-Hobart, the China Sea, and the 1967 Trans-Pacific Race (Los Angeles-to-Hawaii
Transpac race with the boat ''Stormvogel'' ("Stormbird" or the ''
Shearwater
Shearwaters are medium-sized long-winged seabirds in the petrel family Procellariidae
The family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the diving petrels, the prions, and the shearwa ...
''), after coming in a close second in 1965. In 1973, aged 72, Bruynzeel took both line and overall handicap honours in the
Cape to Rio Yacht Race in his boat ''Stormy'';
his progress was followed with keen interest, since he had suffered three heart attacks in the previous year.
References
External links
Sparkman&Stephens Design 126 – ZeearendDetails and photos of the Bruynzeel houseBruynzeel Multipanel Int. B.V. websiteAltor Equity Partners websiteBruynzeel shelving websiteSteinhoff International Limited websiteCompany established by grandparents
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruynzeel, Kees
1900 births
1980 deaths
Businesspeople from Rotterdam
Dutch male sailors (sport)
People from the Western Cape
Sportspeople from Rotterdam
20th-century Dutch businesspeople