Woonhuis

English translation

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Description

Introduction

The block-shaped DWELLING HOUSE Park 11 was designed in 1933 by Eindhoven architect F. Wolters and is known as the 'House with the Spheres'. It is a house that has the typical, symmetrical layout of nineteenth-century manor houses, but in this case provided with rich brick ornament in the style of the Amsterdam School. Elements from the architecture of K.P.C. de Bazel can also be recognized.

Description

The two-storey dwelling house on a rectangular floor plan is provided with a hipped roof with improved Dutch tiles. The facades are built of different colours of red and yellow brick. The front facade has a conservative facade layout and proportions: centrally in the middle projection lies the front door in a portico, while to the left and right of this on the ground floor and upper floor a window is placed in each case. However, due to the expressive ornamental use of the brick, the facade takes on a very unusual character. The stepped brickwork and the deep, spanned by a stretcher-bond arch, strongly sloped portico give the projection a massive character, which is further strengthened by the artificial stone spheres on a brick base. Above the portico a strong reduction in scale occurs and the brickwork becomes less massive through the application of narrow lights and a meander motif. The projection ends in a pseudo-roof dormer with hexagonal, divided window, where the moulded wooden eaves moulding is drawn around it. In the porch is a panel door with narrow fanlight, filled with a leaded glass panel. Not only the central projection gives relief to the facade. On the corners of the front facade heavy brick bears are bonded over the height of the ground floor, while the brickwork of the intermediate space, which is largely occupied by the coupled sash windows with divided fanlights, is also not flat. The architect has here drawn very shallow, triangular oriels over the full height of the front facade. Between the ground floor and the first floor these oriels taper. Various stretchings, string courses and coping lines and the plinth are bonded in contrasting colours. The frequent application of vertical brickwork also gives a varied appearance. The northern and southern facades, all built of brick, have a very closed character. The rear facade has an original rear extension under a flat roof with balcony. The ladder windows are placed at irregular heights. The house is separated from the street by a front garden approximately one metre deep, provided with a simple wrought-iron tubular fence on low brick piers.

Valuation

The dwelling house is of general importance. It has cultural-historical importance as a particular expression of socio-economic development, namely the gradual densification of rural Nuenen; it is also of importance as an example of the typological development of the dwelling house. The object is of architectural-historical importance through its very particular and imaginative detailing in a regional variant of the Amsterdam School and as an example of the oeuvre of architect Wolters. The house is of importance because of the architectural integrity of its exterior. It has ensemble values because of its coherence with the other buildings of the protected townscape Park. It is of importance because of its architectural-historical and typological rarity.