Woonhuis, Marssumerstraat 12

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

Introduction

Row of four DWELLINGS forming part of a COMPLEX of 70 MIDDLE-CLASS DWELLINGS, realised in 1919-1921 in Interbellum style for the Coöperatieve Vereniging Woningbouw according to a design by Doeke Meintema. 17 large dwellings of two storeys with shallow hipped roofs at Harlingerstraatweg 45 through 73 and Marssumerstraat 1 and 2 and 53 small dwellings of one storey with high, broken hipped roofs at Marssumerstraat 4 through 18 and 3 through 9, Franekerstraat 68 through 74, Menaldumerstraat 2 through 18, Bildtsestraat 7 through 25 and 14 through 32 and Engelumerstraat 1 through 15.

Architect Doeke Meintema favoured simplicity of architecture; his buildings were to evoke an image from which one could read how the usable spaces fitted together and also were to show how they were built and which building materials had been applied. He called his buildings a very little bit of art. Following a commemorative exhibition after his death it was written: "Precisely the unpretentious, the rejection of fashionable trends, the appreciation of its own, sturdy character, is so attractive in the work of Meintema".

The complex of 70 dwellings is woven in a lively urban-planning manner into the larger whole of the district. The characteristic architecture of both the large and small dwellings and the lively articulation in staggered blocks of two and four dwellings and some longer stretches nonetheless provide a strong architectural and spatial coherence. This lively grouping with front gardens of varying depth along streets with broad profiles for that time evokes somewhat the atmosphere of a garden city. During a renovation at the end of the seventies the original layout of the dwellings was modernised without the division suffering greatly. The new external doors and window divisions were given a different form at that time, as a result of which the metre of windows and door-lights no longer correspond.

Description

EXTERIOR: The dwelling row forms part of a group of 53 dwellings on Marssumer-, Franeker-, Menaldumer-, Bildtse- and Engelumerstraat of one storey with large, broken roofs. The groups of dwellings are staggered in relation to each other. The dwellings are built on rectangular ground plans. They have detached storage buildings of one storey and constructed of brick and roof-tiled hipped roof structures. The walls are laid in light mottled red brick in Flemish bond without recessed jointing. The header courses for the relief of door and windows are drawn through to a slightly raised course over full width and depth. The original doors were replaced during the 1978 renovation by doors, likewise with four-light lights, but with different proportions; within the frames low, four-part fanlights. Only the dwelling at Bildtsestraat 23 still has an original door with corner fillings at the top of the lights. The dwellings are further opened on the ground floor with (renovated) double or triple six-light windows. On detached gable walls a six-light window. The rear gable opened with glazed doors with glazing bars and a rear (kitchen) door with a narrow tall window. All dwellings have high broken roofs where the under-roof slopes are slightly hollowed. The roofs are fitted with zinc gutters. Each dwelling has a substantial gable on front and rear roof, fitted with a double four-light window with a wooden gable top and a gabled roof with overhang.

INTERIOR: The dwellings originally had a layout on the ground floor of hallway combined with staircase; behind that the kitchen and adjoining it the rooms en suite and under the roof three, quite small bedrooms. The suite structure has been removed in virtually all dwellings to create a large living room. The layout with, among other things, panel doors is otherwise extremely simple. The interiors fall outside the protection. Furthermore, some alterations took place during the renovation. For example, the verandas located behind the kitchen were removed.

VALUATION

The row of middle-class dwellings is as an element of the complex of 70 dwellings of general historical, architectural-historical, architectural and urban-planning importance

- as a relatively early example of corporate construction of middle-class dwellings shortly before the financial turning point in housing provision;

- because of the important place the complex of dwellings occupies in the oeuvre of the prominent architect Doeke Meintema;

- because of the externally virtually intact (except for doors and windows) Interbellum style based on restrained and new architecture no longer referring to historical styles, this type of dwelling being characterised by the remarkable broken roof;

- because of the lively grouping of the dwellings, whereby the architect with block-wise but also coupled staggerings in streets with already broad profiles and especially at the corners suggested so much space that a garden-city-like result was achieved, an image which took further form through the boundaries with privet hedges.