Laboratorium, Arie Biemondstraat 105 A

English translation

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Description

Description

The former LABORATORY (3) for pathological anatomy is part of the Wilhelmina Hospital complex. It was built in 1927 after a business-expressionist design by A.R. Hulshoff of the Public Works department on an irregularly composed ground plan with building volumes varying in height, projecting and receding cubic volumes arranged around the central tower-like stairwell with main entrance. It is a taut brick building with strong horizontal and vertical articulation and rectangles, which show affinity with American architecture from the period of F.L. Wright. The brick building volumes are articulated by recessed steel windows with subdivision, natural stone mouldings and geometric ornaments, largely at the corners and finished with slightly overhanging flat roofs. The taut brick walls and roof mouldings, as well as the recessed steel frames are characteristic of the style and power of the building mass. The two side wings connect T-shaped to the stairwell. The large wing is eleven bays wide at the front and runs parallel to the Jacob van Lennepkanaal and has besides the ground floor three storeys under a flat roof. One corner is bevelled, the short side gable is three bays wide. On the rear as well the broad main wing has a bay-like rounding of the corner. Above a lower building element at the rear nine of the originally eight segment-shaped windows in the rear facade can still be seen. The lower building element under a special hipped-roof-shaped skylight has eight tall twenty-pane windows with steel glazing bars. The short gable of the adjoining wing at the Jacob van Lennepkanaal is also three bays wide. The windows of the basement have a twelve-pane division. The composite western building volume has a broad window section made up of linked windows with heavy intermediate posts and ten-pane frames. Further tall windows here alternate with small square windows. The westernmost part of the building volume projects and is supported by four piers which are decorated with sculptural work by Hildo Krop. The piers are worked on both sides. The representations are executed in hard stone, approximately 205 cm high and depict: A man with bow and arrow, a man with descending bird, a woman with hands beside the shoulders, a woman with chalice flower, a woman with flaming heart in the hand, a woman cradling a bird in her hands, a man with Phoenix, a man with seated eagle on right arm. A glass skylight is also located here. The passageway created under the projection extends further parallel to the Nicolaas Beetsstraat, here too heavy intermediate posts are present. The accentuation with sculptural work and heavy intermediate posts and frieze and passageway served the monumentalisation of the cremation hall formerly located here. Against a short building volume of the main building, as a through-passage to the Nicolaas Beetsstraat, there is here parallel to that street an adjoining wing of three storeys. On the storeys this wing counts seven bays in length and three in width. The long open area at the Nicolaas Beetsstraat is bounded by a metal fence on stone base and with gates. The pier crowns of the fence are by the hand of Hildo Krop: 'Comfort' (left, standing couple, seriously damaged) and 'Remembrance' (right, withdrawing female figure with bell flower), both of hard stone and (originally) approximately 74 high. On this side there is a small ancillary building of one storey under a gabled roof with tiles and with various entrances. The main entrance to the former laboratory is located in a projecting building volume in which amongst other things the stairwell is housed. This volume is built higher than the remaining buildings. An external stair leads to a landing platform, after which a double wooden entrance door under canopy gives access to the main building. The stairwell has tall windows grouped in two groups of three linked windows with respectively 15- and 21-pane frames with steel glazing bars. The brickwork is executed in Norwegian or chain bond. In the high-positioned blind gable sections on four sides is a clock without hands, but with the hour indication in the brickwork. A whitewashed projection closes the facades straight. The sculptural work by Hildo Krop as crowning above the tall window section consists of a moulding with eagles on either side in terracotta and between them two likewise male and two likewise female figures before shallow concave back supports. The sculptures are approximately 125 cm high. To the left of the canopy there is a tufa stone decoration (approximately 100 cm) by the hand of Hildo Krop depicting a torch with a flight of swallows. Further at the main entrance with natural stone covered mortared breast walls and a side entrance to the wing. On either side of the main entrance two more tufa stone decorations by Krop, in the likewise tufa stone framing of the main entrance (approximately 25-33 cm): A woman with bent head leaning on hand, crescent moon and stars (the symbol of rest) and further a male head and radiant sun (symbol of energy). Internally the stairwell with double flight of stairs is still original. The hall is elevated and from the storey onwards the floor of the landing platforms is covered with wooden parquet; the stair treads are also of wood. At the far right of the former laboratory there is still a small ancillary building on T-shaped ground plan, with one storey, with windows with striking four-pane wooden glazing bars and under two recessed gabled roofs with tiles. This is connected by means of a low passage with small square windows on the side of the Jacob van Lennepkanaal to the laboratory.

Valuation

The former laboratory for pathological anatomy dating from 1927-1928 is of general importance by reason of cultural and architectural-historical value as a substantially well-preserved example of an examination building in business-expressionist style and as a historically-functional component of the former Wilhelmina Hospital.