Woonhuis, Bildtsestraat 7

English translation

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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 to a design by Doeke Meintema. 17 Large dwellings of two storeys with shallow hipped roofs at Harlingerstraatweg 45 to 73 and Marssumerstraat 1 and 2 and 53 small dwellings of one storey with high, broken hipped roofs at Marssumerstraat 4 to 18 and 3 to 9, Franekerstraat 68 to 74, Menaldumerstraat 2 to 18, Bildtsestraat 7 to 25 and 14 to 32 and Engelumerstraat 1 to 15.

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

The complex of 70 dwellings is urban-design-wise woven in a lively manner into the greater whole of the district. The characteristic architecture of both the large and small dwellings and the lively articulation in stepped blocks of two and four dwellings and some longer rows nevertheless ensure strong architectural and spatial coherence. This lively grouping with front gardens of varying depth on streets with unusually broad profiles for the time creates 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 being greatly affected. The new external doors and window divisions were given a different form at that time, as a result of which the rhythm of windows and door lights no longer correspond.

Description

EXTERIOR: The dwelling block forms part of a group of 53 dwellings on Marsummer-, Franeker-, Menaldumer-, Bildtse- and Engelumerstraat of one storey with large, broken roofs. The groups of dwellings are offset in relation to each other. The dwellings are built on rectangular ground plans. They have detached storage buildings of one storey, built of brick and provided with hipped roofs with tiles. The walls are laid in lightly mingled red brick in Flemish bond without recessed pointing. The relieving courses above doors and windows are extended as a slightly toothed course across the full width and depth. The original doors were replaced during the 1978 renovation by doors, also 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 six-pane windows. In gable-end walls a six-pane window. The rear facade opened with casement doors with glazing bars and a rear (kitchen) door with a narrow upright window. All dwellings have high broken roofs where the lower slopes are slightly concave. The roofs are provided with zinc parapet gutters. Each dwelling has a substantial gable projection on front and rear slopes, 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 corridor adjoining stairwell; behind this the kitchen and beside it the en suite rooms and under the roof three, fairly small bedrooms. The en suite structure has been removed in virtually all dwellings to create a large living room. The interior fittings are otherwise extremely simple, with among other things panelled doors. The interiors are outside the protection. Further, during the renovation some modifications took place. For instance, the canopies that were 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-design importance

- as a relatively early example of corporate construction of middle-class dwellings shortly before the financial turnaround in social housing;

- because of the important position the complex of dwellings occupies in the oeuvre of the eminent 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, with this dwelling type characterised by the remarkable broken roof;

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