Woonhuis, Menaldumerstraat 2

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

Double DWELLING 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 tall, 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 a simplicity of architecture; his buildings were meant to evoke an image from which one could read how the functional spaces were arranged and also were meant 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 unpretentiousness, the rejection of fashionable trends, the appreciation of its own, sturdy character, is what makes Meintema's work so attractive".

The complex of 70 dwellings is woven into the urban fabric in a lively manner within the larger whole of the district. The characteristic architecture of both the large and small dwellings and the lively articulation in offset blocks of two and four dwellings and some longer strips nonetheless provide a strong architectural and spatial coherence. This lively grouping with front gardens of varying depth on 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 arrangement suffering greatly. The new external doors and window arrangements were given a different form at that time, as a result of which the rhythm of windows and glazed lights no longer correspond.

Description

EXTERIOR: The housing block forms part of a group of 53 dwellings at Marsummer-, Franeker-, Menaldumer-, Bildtse- and Engelumerstraat of one storey with large, broken roofs. The groups of dwellings offset in relation to each other. The dwellings are built on rectangular floor plans. Number 2 has a storage building of one storey built against the side, number 4 has a detached storage building of one storey, both built of brick and provided with hipped roof tiles. The walls are laid in light mixed red brick in Flemish bond without recessed jointing. The header courses for the relief of doors and windows are continued as a slightly projected course over full width and depth. The original doors were replaced during the 1978 renovation with doors, likewise with four-pane lights, but with different proportions; within the frames low, four-section fanlights. The dwellings are further opened on the ground floor with (renovated) double or triple six-pane windows. In detached side gables a six-pane window. The rear gable opened with glazed doors with bars and a rear (kitchen) door with a narrow vertical window. All dwellings have tall broken roofs where the lower roof sections are slightly hollow curved. The roofs are provided with zinc gutters. Each dwelling has a substantial gable section on front and rear roof, provided with a double four-pane window with a wooden gable top and a gabled roof with overhang.

INTERIOR: The dwellings originally have on the ground floor a layout of passage adjoining staircase; behind it the kitchen and adjacent to 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 interior arrangement with amongst others panel doors is otherwise extremely simple. The interiors fall outside the protection. Furthermore, some further improvements took place during the renovation. For instance, the awnings present behind the kitchen were removed.

VALUATION

The double middle-class dwelling 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 cooperative construction of middle-class dwellings just before the financial turning point in public housing;

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

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

- because of the lively grouping of the dwellings, whereby the architect with block-wise, but also coupled offsets in the streets with already broad profiles and especially at the corners has suggested so much space that a garden city-like result has been achieved, an image that has been further shaped by the demarcations with privet hedges.