De Braamakker

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

In 1940-41 executed to the design of G. Th. Rietveld on commission of prof. dr. G.M. Verrijn Stuart wooden summer house, called 'De Braamakkers' and built on a concrete raft between two narrow islets in De Trekgaten near the Loosdrechtse Plassen. The summer house, comprising one to two storeys, is erected on a more or less fan-shaped plan with unplaned - originally painted green with white lower edge - sections, under an asymmetrical thatched gabled roof whose ridge rises towards the east side and which is carried low on the north side. All windows and most external doors are set in thin steel frames; only the red kitchen door in the recessed west facade and the entrance door originally placed in an eastern extension of a small porch in the south facade are of wood.

The tall south facade has below at the sitting room on the left a two-pane terrace door with triangular steel door handle plate and adjoining a window unit divided into six almost square glass panes, above which a wooden balcony is built out, supported on three round wooden posts that are carried up above the floor level as part of the wooden balcony parapet. The two bedrooms on the upper floor further have two doors giving onto this balcony and two, respectively one south window.

The pointed, recessed west facade has below at the sitting room on the south side a recessed section, in which at the centre a window unit divided into eight large glass panes is installed with an angled form at the upper left in relation to the internal staircase built there, and below a wooden sitting and storage bench of unplaned sections; at the far left the kitchen door. On the upper floor three coupled windows, one of which belonging to the landing and two to the south-west bedroom.

The likewise pointed east facade has in the centre a narrow extension, in which above a narrow w.c. window and at the top a slit window for the loft; left on the upper floor a window unit divided into four almost square glass panes for the eastern bedroom; right below at the void of the dining room a vertical window unit applied over virtually the full facade height, divided into twelve almost square glass panes, including the central door, and at the far right at the north-east corner a low kitchen window. Against the central extension, likewise with unplaned sections, a storage space under a catslide roof was later built.

The low north facade has left at the north-east corner two coupled horizontal kitchen windows.

The interior is, with the exception of the floor, still largely authentic. The mostly mutually open-plan rooms are grouped at different levels around the curved central fireplace which is executed in rough brickwork with adjoining wall buttresses and through-passing chimney with corbelling below the landing and with circularly-laid hearth in the floor; the walls and ceilings are finished white. An open staircase at the west side, with below a walk-in cupboard closed off with plank doors, leads to the landing placed in the void from which the three bedrooms and toilet space can be accessed.

By the fireplace a simple low L-shaped bookcase with adjoining a simple sitting/lying bench and in the dining room a sitting bench above which a simple dresser, all designed by Rietveld, as well as the fixed bedroom cupboards.

Summer house of architectural and cultural-historical value as a 'romantic' variant within the Modern Movement due to the notable use of materials within Rietveld's oeuvre and the application of predominantly curved lines, adapted to the natural setting, as well as due to its typological importance and the integrity of exterior, interior and setting.