Boerderij(M1), Felling 6

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

ARTICULATED FARMHOUSE, built in 1908 as an experimental type on commission of the Sint-Anthony Hospital in Leeuwarden after a design by W.C. de Groot in Transitional style on a site slightly shifted in a westerly direction in the Goutumer Nieuwland where a farmhouse had long stood that had been in the ownership of the hospital since 1601. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, there had been hardly any experimentation with the traditional forms of the Frisian farmhouse, the kop-hals-romp and the stelp with some variants, although there had been attempts that led to renewal of the stable arrangement. Large landowners set the tone for the innovations: a few noble families and hospital and orphanage buildings. After the agricultural crisis had passed its lowest point, experiments began which, by fundamentally reorganising the business operations, had far-reaching consequences for farmhouse building. The articulated farmhouse and the farmhouse of the American type made their entrance. Klaas Uilkema noted them in his standard work 'The Frisian Farmhouse' in 1916. Regarding the articulated farmhouse, he remarked prophetically: "I believe I must designate it as a new-Frisian pasture farmhouse, because in its plan it shows agreement with the later-to-be-named old-Frisian, yet by the very nature of things represents a much higher level of culture. This house type is a creation. With its appearance, the modernisation of a fairly large number of farmhouses has begun in this province, especially with regard to the arrangement of the cattle barn. Much imitation as a whole, however, this building has not found and it will quite certainly not find it either. The high building costs argue, among other things, for the full right of this opinion. Its merit will be no less for that. There is namely reason to expect that the future pasture farmhouse will allow the traces of this, in my view, temporary phenomenon to live on in its direction." Later experts in farmhouse building, such as S.J. van der Molen and G.J.A. Bouma are less positive; they find the results of the experiments ugly on traditionalist-aesthetic grounds. Bouma has commentary on the articulated farmhouse in the Goutumer Nieuwland: "The building costs are higher, the feeding of hay costs more labour and the appearance is considerably less fine than that of a stelp or a kop-hals-romp."

One of the most important challenges facing this sector was the production of bacteria-free milk, so that the tuberculosis bacillus had no chance to develop. The endeavour took shape with an articulation and delimitation of the various business functions and an arrangement of the stable that improved hygiene. Moreover, the articulation served fire safety, for besides lightning strike, hay spontaneous combustion remained and remained a great danger for the farmhouse. In an articulated farmhouse, the dwelling, cattle barn, space for milk processing and the hay storage (together with the storage of wagons, machines and tools) were housed in separate, but well-coupled building volumes. The renewal of business operations on farms was promoted by the Institute for Agricultural Machinery and Buildings in Wageningen and the models of this institute will undoubtedly have had great influence on the client and architect.

The client spared no costs (with a then considerable building sum of f 16,000,-) nor effort on this farmhouse and had the architect provide a design in a fairly rich architectural expression for a farmhouse. The farmhouse has been approached Pre-Functionalist in an expression of the Transitional style.

Description

EXTERIOR: The articulated farmhouse consists of four, erected on rectangular ground plans, volumes that shift relative to each other, but are nearly symmetrical on the longitudinal axis. The dwelling house, oriented to the east, is placed transversely. This is followed by the cattle barn on the longitudinal axis and a transversely-directed run with extra stalls and finally the also transversely-placed barn for hay storage and wagons, machines and tools, in which the spaces for milk processing were separated off on the stall side. Each of the four articulations has its own roof.

The masonry is erected in greyish-brown brick, enlivened with under- and over-sill lists of two layers and window lintels of yellow brick; the front house is executed in an exceptionally decorative manner with the same materials and bright-red brick. The roofs, a gabled roof on the front house that is curved at both ends, a gabled roof on the barn, and hipped roofs on the widening of the barn and on the large hay barn, are covered with corrugated Frisian tiles, dark blue glazed on the front house and smoked on the barn and barns.

The front house, built in width, is six window bays wide and three deep. The section of the middle two windows projects slightly. Up to the top sill of the windows, the masonry is greyish-brown, at the bottom sill provided with a two-brick band of yellow material. At the height of the top sills, a dentil course of yellow and brown is worked in on the transition to yellow masonry. Between the middle windows, high in the facade, sits a stone with a church bell, the attribute of Antonius and the symbol of the Sint-Anthony Hospital. Closed on both sides, divided, and provided with threefold fanlights, sash windows with exterior shutters. Arched lintels with recessed and brick mosaic-furnished arches. On the north facade, a glass veranda placed over the full width between vertical and horizontal members provided with a catslide roof. In the south facade, a window of the mentioned type, an entrance section of a panel door with top and side lights released in the same manner, a small toilet window and a narrow window in the gable top, released by a red arch with brick mosaic in the arch. In those yellow tops on either side, a broad frieze of red and yellow brickwork and red two-brick bands at the height of under- and over-sills of the upper windows. The overhanging roof edge is provided with unornamented bargeboard. On the front shield in the middle a chapel with a catslide roof projecting from the apex. On the corners of the roof pirons and on either side of the chapel on the roof two substantial chimneys with panels that have tympanum forms on four sides.

The relatively low, 25-metre-long barn connects in length to the middle of the dwelling. The first section of more than 15 metres is narrow, followed by a wider section of 10 metres with a cross gable. This is followed by the large hay barn of 15 by 20 metres with space for other functions. The barns and barn are opened with small and large double business doors and provided with horizontal, arched-closed six-pane windows. On the corners of the roof of the wide barn section stand grilles in the form like the chimneys on the front house. The large barn roof also has such a grille, but then in the middle; the corners are provided with owl boards.

INTERIOR: The front house consists of three, connected by an almost full-width hallway, rooms with a 'feintekeamer', servant's room, built at the end of the hallway, which is oriented towards the barn. In the hallway, a small window from the dwelling provides a view of the barn. The hallway has a beam ceiling and wainscots, partly of boards, and has three tile tableaus: of a horse, a cow and a caged bird. The entrances to the rooms are arranged as deep round-arch niches between the original bed alcoves in the rooms. The doors are surrounded, the stiles grooved and the top formed with dentils, as if they were battlements. On the room side, panels as dessus-de-portes are placed above the doors. At the northern kitchen room, the door is moved forward. The kitchen room has a beam ceiling and the walls are entirely covered with decorative, traditionalist tiles, even the chimney breast. The fireplace has supports, a profiled edge and a surrounded breast. The bed alcoves have been removed, the panel doors reused. The same has happened in the middle room, where the marble fireplace has been moved. It is the display room, which also has a beam ceiling and is entirely tiled in soft yellow and green tones. The wainscot which received a ceramic moulding at the top is decorated with tiles with stylised dandelions; above the moulding, the wall is further decorated with the motif of the fluff of this plant. The third room, which is to the south, is entirely rebuilt. The veranda on the north side is of the simplest form.

The arrangement of the barn underwent a substantial change. The livestock could be stalled in two rows of 19 and four cross-rows of three in the so-called South Holland manner, not with their heads to the wall, but with their heads to an easily supplied fodder passage. The structure of the barn and shed buildings is original. The barn arrangement was later modified several times in new arrangements, including around 1972 into free stalls, whereby the manure channels were changed from 80 cm to 100 cm sloping towards the manure pit slurry channels. Important traces of the various arrangements are present. The barn has been used almost exclusively for small livestock since the installation of the free stall. Changes have also been made in the barn. With the hay storage, the milking station could be built in here alongside the free stall.

VALUATION

The articulated farmhouse is of general historical, architectural-historical and landscape importance by virtue of

- the value as a rare example of the experimental renewal of the livestock farming operation at the beginning of the twentieth century;

- the intact and stylistically pure expression in the Transitional style characteristic of architect W.C. de Groot, which is evident in the dwelling both externally and internally and which is also carried through in a restrained manner on the exterior of the barn and barns;

- the location just outside the southern settlement edge of Leeuwarden in an open meadow area of the Goutumer Nieuwland and in connection with an older stelp farmhouse also in the possession of Sint-Anthoon.