Bijgebouwen, Koningsweg bij 17 A

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

The address Koningsweg 17a(6) now comprises among other things a number of separate buildings dating from the occupation period, which at that time served as heated aircraft hangars. The hangars are arranged, but nonetheless somewhat 'loose' in relation to each other on three sides of a central courtyard, which is connected by means of a post-war narrowed straight clinker-paved road to the southwestern part of the (ring) taxiway. The total ground plan of the cluster of buildings suggests it was developed ad hoc as a large-scale farm yard with various farm buildings. After the war, the three buildings were, according to a design by architect L.A. Heijdelberger, converted by the Nederlandse Heidemaatschappij - in conjunction with three others (together called the Vier Heemskinderen and as such provided with a blue tile) - into a farm; a function in which they are still used. The farm borders to the southwest and west on the Nationale Park De Hoge Veluwe. The description of the three hangars proceeds - with the back to the road - counterclockwise and thus follows the sequence: A hangar right, B hangar middle and C hangar left.

The hangar on the right stands free as the most northerly, somewhat set back against a wooded background. The ridge of the building, which is of the greatest length and erected on a T-shaped ground plan, extends from southwest to northeast, parallel to the road. The aircraft hangar was constructed as a 'Sonderbau' and is at the macro level part of a large military airfield structure from the years 1940-1945, at the meso level of a sparse complex of originally broadly linear aircraft parking and work spaces realized along the taxiway, both open and closed, and within this at the micro level of a cluster of closed parking spaces executed as agricultural farm buildings for reasons of camouflage. A camouflage painting restored in the recent past (2004) on the doors, depicting windows, net curtains and shutters painted in red and white hourglass motif, was applied by order of the Municipality of Arnhem on the basis of original motifs showing through later finishing layers and on the basis of colour research. The building is entirely whitewashed with a black plinth, but further colour research is being carried out into an original - and possibly to be restored - beige tint.

Description

Relatively small, single-storey, in part constructed with approximately 50 cm thick external brickwork, brick AIRCRAFT HANGAR (6), on a T-shaped ground plan with, as regards the transverse part, a short execution, and covered by a - over its greatest length - gabled roof with sides curved outward, laid with mixed corrugated improved hollow (Dutch) tiles and - on the transverse part - by a slightly lower executed gabled roof ending in a pointed gable. On the rear side a later added brick extension under corrugated asbestos cement sheeting. The hangar was built as a so-called 'Wärmehalle', that is to say as a heated parking or work space. The southeastern long side / main facade is executed symmetrically, with brick to left and right and furthermore a broad access opening reaching to the eaves, which is occupied by eight wooden doors dating from the building period of the hangar, hinged in zigzag fashion to both sides, with windows at the top divided into 12 panes by glazing bars and below this the camouflage restored in the year 2004 with windows, net curtains and shutters painted in red and white hourglass motif. In the left door a wicket door. The gable walls on the right and left are blank but contain at multiple levels traces of a modification, presumably the flattening of openings applied and painted for camouflage purposes. The rear gable (also of the short transverse part) is for the most part concealed from direct view by the later extension, but here among other things traces of a former round opening are visible, which may have served for the outlet of gases; in the gable top traces of a (camouflage) window. Gutters are almost entirely absent; wooden wind braces; in the floor in front of the hinged doors a concrete drainage gutter. The extension is provided on the northwestern side with two entrances and is open on the southeastern side. The interior is somewhat adapted to use as an agricultural outbuilding and the building functions mainly as a storage space for vehicles. Construction, layout and details are to a high degree in original condition. In the concrete floor a partly sealed drainage gutter and on the left a later screened wooden storage for tools. Left and right, high on the rear wall in red block letters "rauchen verboten"; centrally a fairly large rectangular iron shutter, by means of which the connection to the round hole in the rear wall could be closed or opened. Constructed from sawn and in part by means of bolts coupled structural timber and in part on the basis of trusses assembled, entirely covered with wooden boards roof structure.

Valuation

AIRCRAFT HANGAR, of general importance as an extremely rare, virtually intact and characteristic component of an army camp dating from the Second World War and set up by the German occupier as part of a large military airfield, on account of: architectural-historical, urban planning, military and cultural-historical and complex and ensemble values, which among other things can be demonstrated by the traditionalist building style inspired by local forms, by the components and details characteristic of the building period, by the artificially established farm business structure and the camouflage implemented down to the finest detail, by the coherence of and with the total military airfield concept and the spatial main lines and components of the camp, by the mutual relationship of the forms applied herein, and by the adaptation carried out after the Second World War, (in the post-war reconstruction) in direct continuation of the original camouflage form to the local agricultural business.