F.P.J. Peutz (7 April 1896 – 24 October 1974) was a Dutch (

Limburgian Limburgish ( li, Limburgs or ; nl, Limburgs ; german: Limburgisch ; french: Limbourgeois ), also called Limburgan, Limburgian, or Limburgic, is a West Germanic language spoken in the Dutch and Belgian provinces of Limburg and in the neigh ...

)

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 ...

Biography

Peutz was born in a Catholic family in

Uithuizen Uithuizen () is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Het Hogeland. It had a population of 4,885 in January 2017. The Uithuizen railway station is located on the Sauwerd–Roodeschool railway. Histor ...

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

, a mostly Protestant province in the north of the Netherlands. In 1910 he was sent to the

Rolduc Rolduc is the name of a medieval abbey located on the edge of the town of Kerkrade in the far south-east of the Netherlands. It is today a Roman Catholic seminary with an affiliated conference center. The abbey is a '' rijksmonument'' (Dutch n ...

boarding school in

Kerkrade Kerkrade ( Ripuarian: ; li, Kirkraoj; german: Kerkrade or ''Kirchrath'') is a town and a municipality in the southeast of Limburg; the southernmost province of the Netherlands. It forms part of the Parkstad Limburg agglomeration. Kerkrade is the ...

in the Catholic province of Limburg for his higher education. In 1914 he graduated at the HBS, an old type of Dutch high school. After that he studied

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

. In 1916 he changed to

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

. In 1920, while still not graduated, he returned to Limburg to settle as an independent architect in the town of

Heerlen Heerlen (; li, Heële ) is a city and a municipality in the southeast of the Netherlands. It is the third largest settlement proper in the province of Limburg. Measured as municipality, it is the fourth municipality in the province of Limburg. ...

, where the booming

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

industry provided him with many assignments. Peutz played a major role in transforming Heerlen in a true, modern city. In 1925 he received his degree in architecture. Around 1926 his first son, Victor Peutz was born, who became audiologist and acoustician. Peutz and his wife Isabelle Tissen had thirteen children together. One of whom followed in his father's footsteps to get a degree in civil engineering and become an architect.

Work

Peutz incorporated various historical styles in his work. He had a special affinity with the

modern movement Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

(such as

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

in Germany), with his own distinct interpretation. There is a big contrast in style between his secular work and his much more traditional churches. During his lifetime he had quite an international reputation. But because his work was done in and around Heerlen, a city that lost its status as an industrial centre in the decades to come, he has been somewhat forgotten. But in recent years he is being rediscovered, exemplified by the proclamation of his

Glaspaleis The Glaspaleis (in English: ''Glass Palace'') is a modernist building in Heerlen, Netherlands, built in 1935. Formerly a fashion house and department store, Schunck, it is now the cultural centre of the city. The original name was ''Modehuis Sch ...

as one of the world's 1000 most important buildings of the 20th century, and also due to

Wiel Arets Wiel Arets (, born ) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist, industrial designer and the former Dean of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, in the United States of America. Arets was pr ...

' – a contemporary Dutch architect also from Heerlen – many publications on Peutz produced in the past ten years. Peutz was also responsible for the adjacent

Pancratiuskerk The Pancratiuskerk ( St. Pancras Church) is a Roman Catholic church in Heerlen in the Netherlands. History Although no written sources about the origin of the church are known, a comparative study (including among others Onze-Lieve-Vrouwebasil ...

(for Monumentenzorg – 'Monument Care') and the juxtaposition between this old Romanesque church and the ultramodern department store is typical for his mixing of the old and the new. The retreat house and the Glaspaleis are good examples of a new phase in his building style that he developed after entering a competition to design the

Palais des Nations The Palace of Nations (french: Palais des Nations, ) is the home of the United Nations Office at Geneva, located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was built between 1929 and 1938 to serve as the headquarters of the League of Nations. It has served ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

(1926), this new style accumulated in the

Town hall of Heerlen A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Important works

*Villa for the notary Wijnands, Heerlen, 1919 *Broederschool (primary school), Heerlen, 1921 *Villa Casa Blanca, Houthem, 1929 *ULO-school (school building), Heerlen, 1931 *Villa Op de Linde, Heerlen, 1931 * Monseigneur Schrijnen Retreat House, Heerlen, 1932 *

(formerly: Schunck Fashionhouse), Heerlen, 1933 *Villa 't Sonnehuys,

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

, 1933 *

Royal Theater Royal Theatre or Royal Theater may refer to: Venues Australia * Royal Theatre, Canberra Belgium * Royal Theatre of La Monnaie, Brussels * Royal Park Theatre, Brussels * Royal Flemish Theatre, Brussels Canada * Royal Theatre, Victoria, Briti ...

(Royal cinema), Heerlen, 1937 *

, 1936–1942 *Town hall of

Tegelen Tegelen ( li, Tegele) is a village in the municipality of Venlo, situated in the Netherlands. It was an independent municipality until 2001, when it was merged into the municipality of Venlo. Tiglian The name of the glacial stage of Tiglian (pa ...

, 1938 *Kneepkens store, Heerlen, 1939 *Annakerk (church of St. Anne), Heerlen, 1951 * Vroom & Dreesmann store, Heerlen, 1958Historische foto's-Historical images of Heerlen – Parkstad1998
*Stadsschouwburg (Municipal Theatre), Heerlen, 1959 * Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, 1959

References

External links

Short biography and pictures of Peutz' buildingsMonseigneur Schrijnen Retreat House (in Dutch)

Gallery

File:Heerlen Monseigneur Laurentius Schrijnenhuis l.jpg File:BioscoopRoyal1.JPG File:Former_VD_Heerlen1.JPG File:Heerlen26.JPG File:Anna_Kerk.JPG File:Roermond Heilige Geestkerk.jpg File:SintNicolaaskerk Meijel.JPG File:Ranzelkèrklwkped06.JPG File:Huize_Wijnands.JPG File:Huis_Op_de_Linde1.JPG File:Sonnehuys 2.JPG File:PeutzVillaBlancaHoutemwkped06.JPG {{DEFAULTSORT:Peutz, Frits 1896 births 1974 deaths Culture of Limburg (Netherlands) Delft University of Technology alumni Dutch architects Dutch ecclesiastical architects Dutch Roman Catholics People from Eemsmond People from Heerlen