Woonhuis, Prins Bernhardlaan 43

English translation

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Description

Introduction

In 1920 the municipality of Soest granted permission to build a concrete RESIDENTIAL HOUSE on a plot along the Prins Bernhardlaan, near the highest point of the meadow. Client and designer was W.H.C. Doorman, former reserve captain of the Engineers and former administrator of the Billiton Company in the former Dutch East Indies. Billiton was established in 1860 for the exploitation of the rich tin mines in the Dutch East Indies. Doorman chose concrete as his building material, which at that time was still in an experimental phase. Before 1920, concrete was applied to bridges and utility and factory buildings. From 1920 onwards, various projects were also carried out in the social housing sector as trials in concrete. Concrete is a relatively easy and quick to apply structural material, by means of which it was hoped to build a large number of dwellings at low cost. There were several systems existing alongside each other, including cast concrete and concrete system building. Doorman applied the cast concrete method, making use of wooden formwork. Only the load-bearing parts, columns and beams, received reinforcement. The composition of the concrete in the Soest villa consisted of three components: cement, sand and gravel. These were poured in liquid form into the formwork. After hardening the formwork was removed. In general, the concrete walls were rendered on the outside to keep out moisture. This was in many cases necessary because grindstone was not used as a component but blast furnace or refuse incineration slag, which often contained iron residues. These could rust with all disastrous consequences for the concrete which would crumble. In the concrete villa in Soest rendering was not necessary, as a result of which the joints and grain of the wooden formwork in the external walls remained visible. The internal wall is built in driftstones. The floors are executed in wood. Despite the fact that the villa was built with a material that was modern for that time, its appearance is traditional-rustic. By virtue of the fact that the columns and beams in the external walls remained visible as profiles, these have the character of half-timbering. The storey is boarded in with wooden parts and the roof is executed in thatch. The interior of the villa gives no indication that this is a concrete house. Often the walls are covered with wooden panels (wainscoting) and the other interior elements are also executed in a traditional style.

Description

A detached concrete villa from 1920 standing some distance away, at an angle to the road, of two storeys on a composite ground plan beneath a composite gabled roof covered with thatch. The main composition of the villa consists of two building volumes merging into each other. The smallest building volume, in which the kitchen is housed, has one storey beneath an asymmetrical gabled roof. The two-storey main volume, in which the living room and bedrooms are housed, is covered by a hipped roof with partly bent steep continuous roof panels. Recesses have been made in these for the windows on the upper storey. The upper storey of the main volume has been boarded in with wooden sheeting on the front and rear sides, which is toothed at the underside. Almost all windows are flanked by shutters with hourglass motif and have hinged casement windows with glazing bars and fanlight. The half-timbered division consists of bays of unequal width. The asymmetrically arranged front facade (north-west) consists of three parts offset in relation to each other. The left section of two bays wide has a window in the right bay. To the right of this is an obliquely positioned, one bay wide, building mass of two storeys beneath two thatched roof panels. Here is located on the ground floor the main entrance with a hanging canopy below the fanlight. On the upper storey is a window. This oblique facade adjoins the single-storey building volume which projects slightly forward in relation to the other building volumes. The three bays wide long side facade has a window in the middle. In front of the rear facade stands on the right a wooden conservatory annex balcony with bevelled sides. To the left of this, beneath a later added shelter of corrugated sheets, is a double garden door. Above this door is likewise a comparable door placed in the facade. The right side facade is asymmetrical in composition. On the left is a pointed gable of the single-storey building volume beneath an asymmetrical gabled roof. In the facade is a kitchen door with a hanging canopy below the fanlight. The gable top is covered with wooden parts with a tooth-like moulding at the underside. To the right of this the facade recedes by a width of approximately one and a half metres. In this recess a wooden shed has been built with a lean-to roof. To the right of this shed is the three bays wide long facade of the main volume with in the middle bay one window. The left side facade has a division of five bays. The second bay from the left is wider and is provided with a T-shaped composite window group, consisting of a hinged casement window, above which a three-part glazing bar fanlight is placed. The second bay from the right has one window.

The layout of the rooms is in virtually an original state and contains various original interior elements, including wooden wainscoting.

Valuation

The residential house is of general importance on account of its cultural and architectural-historical value by reason of the construction as a relatively rare and early example of a villa executed in concrete in a traditional rustic style, built according to the cast concrete method in combination with reinforced concrete beams and columns. The villa is very well-preserved as regards principal form, material use and detailing of both the exterior and the interior. The construction method applied is recognisable from the exterior.