Woonhuis, Harlingerstraatweg 33

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

VILLA Harlingerstraatweg 33 forming part of a COMPLEX of ten villas in timber-frame construction, Harlingerstraatweg 29-41 and Engelsestraat 2-6, built in the winter of 1922-'23 in the Chalet style. The developer was K. Wits, director of the N.V. Maatschappij tot huizenexploitatie Frisia and J. Scheltema the executing and supervising architect. The dwellings were obtained as building kits from Austria, for Leeuwarden an early example of standardised construction for this type of dwelling. The design was supplied by the manufacturer, the 'Vereinigte Möbel- & Holtzwarenfabriken u. Sägewerke Schönthaler - Silva' from Vienna. However, compared to the drawing of the building application, some modifications took place. In the drawing the roof at the front is rounded; executed are stepped gables with substantial overhanging gabled roofs. Moreover, all dwellings received on the side at the rear rooms trapezoidal bays with balconies for the upper storey. These may be modifications by Scheltema. The construction cost of the villas prefabricated in Austria and transported to the building site in elements was, including transport costs, per unit somewhat more than f 9000,-. Inside, the dwelling has been largely remodelled especially on the ground floor; the exterior is still almost intact.

Description

EXTERIOR: The villa is built in timber-frame construction with wooden walls. The mainly horizontal wooden parts, interlocked with tongue and groove, are incorporated in the stiles and rails. With the substantial overhanging gabled roof the villa has a distinctly foreign Chalet style.

The dwelling has a rectangular floor plan and is two full storeys and a spacious roof storey high, on the rear side a volume of one storey with a roof with coping is constructed over the full width, in which the conservatory (called veranda in the design) and the scullery are housed. In the original rear facade three windows with small glazing bars and a glass door have been replaced by a glass wall. The gabled roof has substantial overhangs on front and rear sides and is covered with red, corrugated Frisian tiles. On the roof planes on both sides stand freely closed, wooden roof dormers with small cross windows. On the front on the ground floor in the middle a trapezoidal bay is built out, on which for the upper storeys a balcony came. Also on the side of the rear room such a bay with balcony is built out. In the gable tops the wooden parts are worked vertically in the tops and the sides. Front and rear facades are opened with spacious windows, below casement windows with fanlights provided with cross glazing bars. On the upper storey are two-light windows with small glazing bar divisions; the balcony doors are flanked by simple windows of this type. Here they are provided with shutters. The side facades have an irregular articulation with large and small windows, likewise provided with small glazing bar divisions. In a number of dwellings the glazing bar divisions have disappeared, but all still have the fanlights with cross glazing bars.

On the coloured design drawing the woodwork is indicated in light brown and dark beige; old (black and white) photographs suggest that the dwelling was indeed painted in mid-tones. Currently the walls are dark brown; the stiles and rails are white and the frames, windows, shutters and doors white/dark green. This approach in broad outline is vividly detailed in parts. The balconies have flat, urn-shaped balusters and balls on the fence posts. In the front gable top the vertical parts end in disc shapes, possibly for the drip, which are painted in contrasting colours on most dwellings. In the front gable top ornaments standing on the tip are placed on the sides and in the top similar ornaments that were given a small pane.

INTERIOR: The dwelling layout on the ground floor originally at the front consists of a small vestibule, a hall where the staircase and cloakroom/toilet open out. The vestibule has been removed in many dwellings and added to the hallway. Beside the entrance area lies a broad front living room. The suite wall has disappeared, but the spatial arrangement can still be experienced because the rear room is slightly narrower. The rear room originally opened onto the conservatory with again suite doors between cupboards; this too has disappeared and the space added to the rear room. Next to the rear room lies a spacious kitchen with pantry and behind it, in the extension, the scullery. The remarkably easy, lazy staircase leads to the upper storey; the staircase is, like the landing and the staircase to the second storey, provided with railings with balusters. On the upper storey three bedrooms are housed; the two that are in line with each other originally had a connecting door in a cupboard wall. The partition wall with connection has been altered. On the upper storey the original panelled doors are still present. Under the roof two bedrooms with built-in cupboards on one of the sides and a small room.

APPRECIATION

The timber villa is of general historical, architectural-historical and urban planning significance

- because of the unusually occurring for that time, imported from abroad timber system construction, which probably relates to the shortage and high cost of brick material;

- because of the thereby in the existing architectural image remarkably exotic Chalet style of the externally intact, internally usually adapted dwellings;

- as an element in the lively, but not restless urban planning grouping of the ten villas on and near a spacious crossroads.