St. Antonius

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

Former COLONY HOUSE located on the west side of the Heereweg and in the dune area, built in 1934 to a design by The Hague architect J.B. Fels in a building style influenced by the work of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The client was the Christian Association for Children's Holiday Stays based in Amsterdam, which however went bankrupt during construction. The project was subsequently taken over by the Foundation for Catholic Children's Holiday Stays, also based in the capital. This foundation operated multiple colony houses (including in Boxtel and on the Veluwe) including a former guesthouse at the Pompplein in Egmond aan Zee. In its place came the new colony house which was given the name "St. Antonius". Long after the war the building continued to be used as a holiday and rest home for boys and girls ("pale faces") from Catholic families. Currently the building houses a children's medical facility. In the design process of the colony house, sun exposure played an important role: the sleeping, play and dining halls were situated on the south side, the kitchens, toilets, cloakrooms and other service rooms on the north side. In the striking architecture with its gently sloping hipped roofs with generous overhang, the influence of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright is clearly recognizable.

N.B. The extensions from the 1970s are not protected.

Description

Colony house built on an H-shaped floor plan consisting of an elongated main building standing virtually at right angles to the Heereweg, which is connected by a corridor to a more northerly and parallel secondary building of smaller dimensions. The originally symmetrical main building has a three-part arrangement with a two-storey central section between equally long single-storey side wings, which are angled at an oblique angle to the central section in a southerly direction. The secondary building and the corridor are both single storeys high. The latter has a gabled roof with generous overhang. The first floor of the central section of the main building is not provided across the full width, but is set back several metres on the north side. The transition between ground floor and first floor is formed here by a sloping roof (with generous overhang) above the ground floor windows and below the first floor windows. All other building volumes are provided with gently sloping hipped roofs with generous overhang. The roofs are covered with black-glazed large Romanesque tiles. The outer brickwork is laid in whitewashed machine-made brick in Waal format in running bond with recessed joints. The plinth is painted black. The facades were presumably white from the beginning, as old photographs show that they were already whitewashed in 1940. The continuous concrete drip mouldings below all windows and the likewise concrete cantilevered continuous lintels above them reinforce the predominantly horizontal lines of the facades. Amidst this, the entrance bay built up from cubic building masses in the centre of the front facade (N) of the main building forms a strong vertical accent. The entrance bay projects above the aforementioned sloping roof and consists of two projecting rectangular (in plan and elevation) building volumes with a flat roof at the level of the underside of the first floor windows, and between them a likewise perpendicular to the facade rectangular building volume that projects above the first floor and is provided with a hipped roof with generous overhang running perpendicular to the main roof. Between the two first-mentioned building volumes - both are provided in the middle with a vertical slot with windows behind it - an overhanging concrete canopy has been installed beneath which the recessed front door, a double door with in each door leaf a large upright glass panel with ornamental ironwork in front of it. The intermediate building volume has above the canopy and flush with the roof edge a narrow projecting vertical window bay (at the level of the stairwell behind it) on which rests an overhanging concrete slab. Against the right side facade (W) of the middle building volume, a rectangular in section and open-worked at the top chimney is built in the corner on the right. The entrance bay is moreover undercellared for the heating installation. In the middle of the horizontal facade surfaces left and right of the main entrance is a panelled door with four glass panels at the top. Five small upright windows are arranged on either side of both doors.

At the level of the connection between the central section and the east wing is a rectangular extension under a hipped roof (with generous overhang) perpendicular to the main roof. The transition between the central section and the west wing is formed by the corridor running perpendicular to the central section and the secondary building. Along the east facade of this, a planter has been laid in brickwork over the full length. Above the connection of the gabled roof of the corridor against the roof of the central building, a five-sided balcony has been installed, half-recessed into the latter roof, which is clad on the outside with hipped roof tiles. Both side wings (which housed the sleeping halls) have a raised central projection (approximately 1 metre higher than the ground floor facades) whose hipped roof provided with generous overhang runs perpendicular to the roof of the side wings. Where the ridges of the side wing roofs meet the side slopes of the roof above the raised central section, a cubic chimney has been built. In the originally symmetrical south facade of the main building, the transition between the tall central section and the forward-projecting side facades is formed by a narrow projecting cubic building volume (in elevation an upright rectangle) whose flat concrete roof connects to the continuous concrete drip moulding below the first floor windows of the central section. Both side wings also have a central projection on this side. These however project less prominently and thereby remain within the broad roof overhang.

The secondary building consists to the left and right of the corridor of two approximately equally long wings: a narrow east wing and a broad and taller west wing (the latter housed the dining hall and the undercellared kitchen). Against the southeast corner of the east wing is a square base built in brickwork on which stands a whitewashed terracotta statue of St. Antonius. The north facade of the east wing has in the middle a stepped extension under a hipped roof that runs perpendicular to the hipped roof of the east wing. The southern roof slope of the large hipped roof above the west wing has five internal balconies. On the western roof slope stands a brick dormer from the period of construction with a flat roof provided with slight overhang.

INTERIOR. The central corridor in the central section of the main building has a wall lining of yellow-glazed tiles with an upper and lower border of black-glazed tiles. The corridor floor consists of grey-speckled tiles with along the edge a double border of black tiles and middle ornaments of black and red tiles. The corridor on the first floor has the same floor, but instead of tile wall lining has plastered walls. The original doors are still present here - flat doors with a horizontal window at the top - which provide access to the rooms intended for staff on the first floor.

Valuation

The children's house with its associated interior is of general importance for its cultural and architectural historical value as a largely well-preserved example of a colony house from the 1930s constructed in Wrightian style.